Women may have to pay for C-section
Health Minister Edwin Poots launches a consultation on the draft maternity Strategy for Northern Ireland at the Grove Wellbeing Centre in Belfast along with Sarah Jane Mowbray and her son Joseph James who is 4 days old and Bronagh O'Connell Community Midwifery Sister for N Belfast Photo by Aaron McCracken/Harrisons
WOMEN who choose to have their babies delivered by Caesarean section when it would be safe to give birth normally may have to pay for it, the health minister has warned.
Edwin Poots yesterday announced the launch of a consultation on a review of maternity services, following a Department of Health report that revealed Northern Ireland has the highest C-section rates in the UK and Ireland.
In 2010, 30 per cent of births in Northern Ireland were delivered via C-section, compared with 24 per cent in England, 26 per cent in Wales and Scotland, and 25 per cent in Ireland.
Mr Poots explained that it costs several thousand pounds more for a C-section.
Women who elect to have a C-section on non-medical grounds currently pay to go private for their pre and post-natal care, but the health service pays for the delivery.
Referring to these women, Mr Poots said it was their decision to go private, but he added: “I don’t feel, that we the public in Northern Ireland should be paying additional money for people to have the choice.”
The minister, whose wife had a C-section for the birth of one of their children, said he fully supports the operation when it is “absolutely necessary” based on valid medical reasons.
But he said women who have no real medical need to undergo the abdonominal surgery should be encouraged to choose to give birth naturally.
His report dubbed elective C-sections on non-medical grounds as an “unnecessary intervention” and stated: “Intervening when it is not necessary is not providing quality care and in respect of caesarean sections, there is a growing body of evidence that it has an impact on future pregnancies, increasing both mortality and morbidity rates.”
He said these were issues, in addition to the cost factor, that women must consider.
Accoridng to his figures, women who had a C-section across Northern Ireland’s hospitals in 2010 spent an average 3.3 days in hospital for aftercare.
While those who gave birth normally spent an average of 1.6 days inhospital after birth.
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Wednesday 22 February 2012
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