The state Department of Health reports fewer women in Louisiana are having to resort to a cesarean section delivery of their babies. Numbers from calendar year 2021, compiled by the LDH Safe Births Initiative show c-sections fell to 28.5-percent of all deliveries; down from 33-percent the year before. Medical Director Dr. Veronica Gillespie-Bell says this data bucks a national trend of INCREASED cesarean births without maternal benefit.
LDH says cesarean births are often life-saving procedures, however they should be the exception and not the rule. Dr. Gillespie-Bell says until recently, most doctors would make the call on performing C-sections based on old recommended medical standards for pregnancy and birth.
“It said that ‘active labor’ started at 4 centimeters (diliation). They went back and looked at that data and they have redefined ‘active labor’ as starting at six centimeters,” says Gillespie-Bell.
She says waiting until a woman is more dilated gives her body more time to prepare, and increases the ability to have a normal, natural delivery. She says not all doctors are practicing this yet, but the lower numbers of C-sections performed indicates new standards are taking hold.
“I’ve been in practice for 14 years, and I’ve had to change my own practices to be consistent with the newer recommendations.”
She says it’s hoped we’ll see even lower numbers of cesarean births in the future.
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