Jump in C-section births: Readers respond

File photo / Northern Advocate

Today the Herald revealed a jump in Caesarean section births was stretching health board budgets across the country.

We asked readers if C-sections should remain fully taxpayer-funded and got a variety of responses, many from mothers who had experienced Caesarean births themselves.

On our Facebook page, Deena Bailey said "I'm still traumatised from my emergency C-section after 3 natural births! These woman are insane to elect surgery of something that is not only natural but a miracle of creation, the very genesis of life."

Natalie Sutton agreed. "If you need to have one, that's fine, but those people who just choose to have a C-section should pay for it themselves. I can't understand why people would choose a C-section, scars, longer recovery."

Megan Exelby thought education was the key. "For what it's worth, I dont think tellling women to 'toughen up' is quite the way to fix it...
I think the way to go is to INFORM INFORM INFORM," she wrote.

Trisha Trainor said it wasn't just more women pushing for C-sections, obstetricians were doing it as well. "I had a C-section based on the advice of my obstetrician. I was a high-risk pregnancy so I went with his opinion. I think the article should have mentioned that more specialists are pushing for C-sections as well, not just the women."

In nzherald.co.nz's Your Views section, The Bug pointed out that just because a c-section was classed as elective didn't mean it was a personal choice.

"My wife had a C-section when our twins were born; we were planning for a natural birth for them but the bottom one was breach and it would have been too dangerous for the two of them," he wrote.

"This was classified as an 'elective' Caesarean as it was a decision made before labour; I would therefore disagree with any push to charge for elective Caesareans regardless as this may put women and babies into danger."

Bemused wrote: "'elective' doesn't mean personal choice, it means the operation was planned rather than done as an emergency. Most of these planned Caesareans are for good reason - baby size or position, previous Caesarean, medical problems etc."

- NZ Herald staff