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A major UK hospital has banned women from having caesareans unless there is a medical reason.

Oxford University Hospitals will no longer offer them to women who are frightened or have had previous traumatic births.

Some women have reportedly had to travel miles to other hospitals to give birth while their families stay in local hotels, reports Daily Mail.

The Hospital trust’s policy breaches guidelines from health watchdog Nice, which say women should be allowed a caesarean without a medical reason once the risks and benefits have been explained.

Some women are anxious about natural birth or have endured previous traumatic labours they don’t want to repeat.

The hospital trust still offers caesareans to women in an emergency, if they are having twins or triplets, or have a medical condition which makes natural childbirth riskier.

A spokesman for the Birth Trauma Association charity said: ‘This policy is a breach, not only of Nice guidelines, but of common humanity. We suspect the policy is driven by an ill-conceived desire to save money.’

However Oxford University Hospitals said its decision was ‘not related to targets but to good practice and reducing harm to women’.

The trust’s Dr Veronica Miller said: ‘A caesarean section which is not clinically indicated may have serious consequences for a woman and her baby.’

Caesareans take longer to recover from than natural births. The wound may cause severe pain and some women need to be in hospital for three or four days.

Hello! This totally goes against all women’s rights, surely?!?

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  • its a major surgery and should only been performed if necessary.

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  • Agree that this surgery should only be done during an emergency. Have had both normal and an emergency C-section and was so lucky after that to have had a baby normally again even though the doctor had booked me in for a further C-section. Fortunately bubs was in a hurry and couldn’t wait for the surgeon to arrive, so we delivered naturally. So much less trauma and miles less pain normally than with a C-section.

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  • How utterly ridiculous and disgraceful. If the woman is giving birth, she should have the right to decide.

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  • I know a Mum who requested to be induced or a c-section as she was already a week overdue and her husband had been trasferred overseas for a mininum of 12 months. He had to leave in a week. He admitted that he was also desperate to be home for the birth to support his wife and meet their new baby.

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  • I think this type of surgery should be performed only when it is necessary.

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  • I don’t think this goes against women’s rights. I have had both a natural birth and a caesarean. The caesarean was an emergency one because my son was stuck. This kind of caesarean is not banned at the hospital. Only ones where women are consciously making the choice that they don’t want to try giving birth the way nature intended. I’m sorry but go back 50 or so years and choosing a caesarean wouldn’t even be an option. Yes, they are great when the mother can’t give birth naturally, but it takes a much greater toll on the body. After a natural birth I was able to exercise again only a couple weeks later and do all the house work and things that I would normally do. After a caesarean I was pretty much rendered useless for 8 weeks. Some women I have heard even choose a caesarean to have a ‘prettier baby’ that doesn’t have a squished head! Another important factor to note is that babies bond much better with their mother after a natural birth. Obviously, after a couple of days this is all forgotten but natural is definitely a much better experience for both the mother and the baby and I really don’t understand why anyone would choose to have a caesarean unless they really needed to.

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  • Simple! Steer absolutely clear of this hospital. This is old school, ridiculous, from the dark ages. I’d be giving this hospital a wide berth!!!

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  • The problem is that different doctors will regard the same reason for wanting a Caesarian differently – some will say it’s medically necesary, others not.

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  • To be honest I think how it should be ! Only a caesarian on medical indication is how it should be I think. Btw, when there has been severe trauma in the past and one feels totally anxious, this could be regarded as a medical ground too, when you look to a person as a whole (physical, mental,social well being).

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  • Hopefully the women who need C sections get them. My daughter in law is trying very hard to come to terms of giving birth to her daughter and is frighten that she will go through with it again if they decide to have another child. I am thinking some of these women will have to decide if having more children is worth it.

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  • We keep hearing about unnecessary c section so I guess it’s a good thing.
    But a past trauma should be considered a medical condition.

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  • I think that hospitals should by default avoid unnecessary c-sections. But I expect that they are already doing so. Each case should be evaluated individually. One woman with a traumatic past needs more respect than this.

    Reply

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