Study Doctors Give Black Women Unneeded C-Sections to Fill Operating Rooms (Aug 2024) Drivers of Racial Differences in C-Sections

Michael Harrop

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About 30 percent of babies in the United States are delivered via C-section, about double the proportion deemed appropriate by the World Health Organization.

Healthy Black women with low risk factors were far more likely to get C-sections than white women with similar medical histories, a large new study found.

The new study found that rather than preventing harm, the C-sections given to women when the operating rooms were otherwise empty led to more surgical complications. Recovery often requires more time in the hospital, and other studies have also linked the surgery to lower odds of successful breastfeeding.
Black mothers with unscheduled deliveries are 25 percent more likely to deliver by C-section than non-Hispanic white mothers. The gap is highest for mothers with the lowest risk and is reduced by only four percentage points when controlling for observed medical risk factors, sociodemographic characteristics, hospital, and doctor or medical practice group. Remarkably, the gap disappears when the costs of ordering an unscheduled C-section are higher due to the unscheduled delivery occurring at the same time as a scheduled C-section. This finding is consistent with provider discretion—rather than differences in unobserved medical risk—accounting for persistent racial disparities in delivery method. The additional C-sections that take place for low-risk women when hospitals are unconstrained negatively impact maternal and infant health.

C-section vs vaginal birth: https://humanmicrobiome.info/maternity/#c-section-vs-vaginal-birth
 
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