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A great article was published yesterday, which explains how Midwives in Southampton, England, are helping women who have previously had a caesarean section to choose a normal, natural birth for their next baby.
The article, published on the Medical News Today website stated that nationally, the number of c-sections has dramatically increased over the last decade and that this has led the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement to develop a toolkit to help midwives reduce these numbers.
This toolkit has been in development at Princess Anne Hospital for the last 18 months and during that time there has been a 4 per cent reduction in the number of c-sections. This is double the target reduction.
In 2007, 24 per cent of births were by c-section. In 2008 this dropped to 20 per cent, with just 16 per cent of births by c-section in November.
Interestingly, one of the initiatives is to introduce midwife-led care for women having vaginal birth following a previous caesarean.
Helen Barnes, the consultant midwife trainee who helped set up the project, said: "We try not to medicalise the event, so from the beginning the mother will see a midwife, rather than a doctor. They will have a risk assessment to make sure they are suitable for midwife-led care and VBAC, and we fully explain the risks and benefits so they can make an informed choice."
I'm not sure of the plans for this toolkit, but it if it's working it would be nice to this that this would not only be shared with other UK Hospitals, but also internationally.
If you are planning on having a VBAC, try our Vaginal Birth After Cesarean Relaxation download which will help you relax and work with your body.
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