Childbirth Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Childbirth - Essay Example The rate of vaginal birth after previous cesarean increased from1989 till 1996 and declined between 1996 and 2003. In the year 2003, 27.6% of all births in the United States resulted from cesarean deliveries. (MMWR, 54(02), 46) An institutional culture that views childbirth as pathological might have contributed to an extent for the increase in cesarean deliveries in the United States. The number of voices urging to make childbirth a human and social, rather than a medical, event signifies this. However, the institutional culture is not the sole reason for these undesirable results. The safety issues of mother and child and medico legal considerations appear to have contributed to the rise. A doctor is more likely to be sued for not doing a cesarean than for doing one. In addition, a high rate of malpractice by the midwives and the insurance costs favored the pregnant women to seek the services of an obstetrician. Childbirth is either by means of a vaginal delivery or a cesarean section. Cesarean sections are carried out by obstetricians. A few alternatives to a normal natural vaginal delivery are there for women in US. They are natural birth with pain medication, aromatherapy at birth, home birth, midwife delivery, birthing centers, water birth and Doula assistance. In a natural birth with pain medication, medication is given to alleviate the