Cesarean Figures on Hospital Transfers

The timely article on birthing centers (Jan.21) failed to mention some of the most interesting and significant results found in the recent Columbia University study of 11,814 women in 84 free-standing birth centers throughout the United States.

Although it is true that childbirth can be fraught with life-endangering complications that require immediate medical attention, it is interesting to note that the (Columbia) study found that only 7.9% of the mothers or their infants developed any serious emergency complications during or soon after birth--with less than half of these requiring transfer to hospitals.

And while mothers were transferred on a non-emergency basis, the overall Cesarean-section rate was only 4.4% (our nation’s Cesarean rate is currently about 25%). The overall neonatal mortality rate was 1.3 per 1,000 births--similar to those reported in large studies of low-risk hospitals.

Of course, the American obstetricians and gynecologists will always be critical of birth centers--about 80% of them are staffed by midwives. In our culture, medical doctors dominate childbirth and this is how they prefer it. Childbirth is a business just like everything else in our country. It is time for parents to become wise consumers.

KRISTA TIBERIO

San Clemente