As always, the latest NHS information on births in Scottish hospitals make for interesting reading, giving us a unique insight into the health and wellbeing of the country’s new mothers and babies.
Statistics showing promising shifts including a decrease in the proportion of women who smoke during pregnancy, a slight fall in the number of premature and low birthweight infants born and a decrease in the number of babies who are stillborn are to be warmly welcomed.
But there are some more worrying trends, too, particularly around the number of births that required medical intervention and the increasing levels of obesity among Scotland’s mothers to be.
The figures show that the proportion of “spontaneous” or natural births taking place is gradually falling, while the number of caesarean sections and the requirement for other medical interventions is up. In 1975/76, three quarters of all births were spontaneous. By 2014/15, that had fallen to 56.3% - a 1% decrease on the year before. Almost a third of all infants born in Scotland are now c-sections. Since the mid-1970s, the number of planned c-sections taking place has tripled; unplanned procedures have quadrupled.
The explanation for this rise in c-sections encompasses a number of factors of course, including better medical knowledge and the ability to save more infants that would otherwise have died. The steady increase in the number of births to mothers aged over 30 in last 40 years, meanwhile, reflects wider societal changes for women during that time. Mothers over 30 are more likely to need a c-section.
The latest figures make clear that Scotland’s obesity problem is also having an impact. Overweight or obese women are also more likely to require a c-section. Of the 53,000 women who had babies in Scotland in 2014/15, half were overweight or obese.
In light of the latest figures, senior midwives have renewed calls made earlier this year for better monitoring of the number of c-sections taking place in Scotland. As the profession points out, the procedure saves the lives of many mothers and infants, and is a routine part of modern obstetrics. But, as with any major operation, it does carry risk.
It’s perhaps also worth noting that c-sections carry a greater financial burden to the NHS – where a natural birth costs £750, a c-section comes in at £1,700.
Hardly a week goes by without this newspaper reporting on the worrying extent or devastating effects of Scotland’s obesity epidemic.
Earlier this year, a report by researchers at Holyrood concluded that overweight Scots cost the economy £145 every second, draining the NHS of £600m annually.
And it’s not just adults that are overweight – our children, too, are some of the heaviest in the Western world.
The latest figures on c-sections highlight yet another worrying aspect of this obesity epidemic. Public health is a complex issue, of course, and there are no easy answers. But the evidence all surely leads towards one uncomfortable truth for Scotland’s small and ageing population: we simply cannot afford to keep putting on the weight.
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