A novel study shows that middle class women are more prone to give birth by C-section in comparison to their working-class counterparts. The investigation of thousands of births showed that as number of caesarean births have soared, the social status of has also changed.
The finding seems to further support the acuity that C-section births have become trendy among wealthy women. However, the fashion among middle-class women to postpone starting a family until they have set up a career and are financially secure is prone to have contributed to this increasing trend.
In a study researchers from the Medical Research Council and the Scottish Chief Scientist’s Office, examined hospital records of births in Scotland from 1980-81, 1990-91 and 1999-2000. They also collected the information on the occupation and address of the mother to acquire an idea on their social class and financial circumstances.
Out of more than thirty thousand births studied, researchers found that non-emergency caesarean births had increased from three and half percent to five and half percent over the period of two decades. It had gone from being more usual in the poor to more likely among the better-off.
Overall by the year 2000, seventeen and half percent births were caesareans, with emergencies making up two-third of these. Elective or planned caesareans accounted for the other third. It was concluded in earlier studies that only about seven percent of planned or elective caesarean were done at the request of mothers.
The rest were carried out on the advice of a doctor for medical problems foretold ahead of labour. According to Ruth Dundas, from the Medical Research Council in Glasgow, thirty years ago mothers having caesarean sections were more prone to be from deprived areas or from a lower social background.
But by 1990-2000 the rates had equalized for emergency section, but babies born by elective surgery were more likely to belong to mothers from the higher of the social classes, added Dundas. The study was published in the journal BMC Public Health.