Sixfold increase of surgical interventions during childbirth

BirthBirth.Photo: pixabay.com

There were various interventions of 36.1% of all births in Norway in 2016. It is a sixfold increase during the past 50 years.

 

This was shown in fresh figures from the Medical Birth Register, which has taken statistics on births in Norway since 1967.

‘The main reason is that we consider these interventions safer than wedid 50 years ago. We are more willing to do these interventions for all types of indications, and the reason is that we believe the results will be better for both mother and child.

This is especially true of Caesarean sections’, said professor and obstetrician, Pål Øian, at the University Hospital of Nord-Norge to P4 newspaper.

In 1967, interventions such as the use of suction cups, seaweed, clipping, and caesarean sections, were made in approximately 3,600 of every 66,543 births, i.e., 5.4%.

Last year, the number of births in which suchinterventions were made was approximately 21,000 out of 59,104 births, of which almost half were cesarean sections, show the numbers.

While in 1967, 13.5 childbirths per 1,000 were still-born, the figure last year was 3.5 per 1,000.

 

 

NTB Scanpix / Norway Today