Cesarean Delivery and the Risk–Benefit Calculus

Abstract

Interview with Jeffrey Ecker on the contributors to the increase in cesarean deliveries. (07:20)Download In 1937, an article in the Journal describing 10 years of births at Boston City Hospital revealed an overall rate of cesarean delivery of about 3%.1 Recently released 2005 data on cesarean deliveries show that contemporary rates are 10 times as high, having climbed above 30% (see graph).2 Indeed, of the 20th century's many changes in obstetrical care — the wholesale move from home to hospital delivery, increasing use of anesthesia, the advent of in vitro fertilization — few have generated more attention and debate or had a greater effect on the process of delivery than this seemingly inexorable rise. . . .