Australia has increasingly high rates of intervention during childbirth. Intervention includes any medical and surgical interference to a woman aiming to improve outcomes for her and her baby.
While it is sometimes critical in childbirth, intervention should only occur when necessary to ensure women are not robbed of the opportunity for a natural birth experience and all the emotional and physical processes that follow.
Looking at data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report of National Core Maternity Indicators, in 2017, 55.4 percent of *selected women had a caesarean section or instrumental vaginal birth, which includes the use of forceps and vacuum extraction.
This chart shows less than half (44.6 percent) of selected women in 2017 had an unassisted (non-instrumental) vaginal birth, which includes spontaneous vaginal and vaginal breech delivery.
The next chart demonstrates the gradual decline in non-instrumental vaginal births for selected women from 2004 to 2017.
It also shows the consistently high rate of caesarean section and instrumental vaginal births and the rapid growth of induction of labour – bringing to question whether or not intervention during childbirth has and is being over-used in Australian hospitals.
Two in five selected women had an induced labour in 2017, increasing from one in three in 2004.
By comparison, the increase of caesarean sections was lower (4 percent across a 14-year period), however the overall rate remained high, peaking at nearly 20 percent in 2017.
This is almost double the WHO’s ideal rate of caesarean sections of 10-15 percent. According to the WHO, “at population level, caesarean section rates higher than 10% are not associated with reductions in maternal and newborn mortality rates”.
In Australia, caesarean sections are particularly high in the private health sector.
In 2017, nearly 40 percent of selected women admitted as private patients had a caesarean section, which is significantly higher than 27 percent at public hospitals.
You might find yourself questioning, well why are the rates so high?
The excessive use of caesarean sections and other methods of intervention during childbirth in Australia should be questioned.
This is a complex issue and there’s little evidence indicating why intervention rates continue to grow. There is speculation suggesting unnecessary intervention has been caused by lack of time to support the natural processes of labour in addition to the inadequate amount of bed spaces available.
It is important women understand the risks of intervention and their right to have a natural birth, given they are low-risk and are in a position to do so.
*AIHW: “Selected women include those aged between 20 and 34 years, whose baby’s gestational age at birth was between 37 and 41 completed weeks, with a singleton baby in the vertex presentation.”
(Featured Image: PHALINN OOI).
