Docs Say Targets No Way To Lower C-Section Rates

MANAGED CARE February 1999. ©1999 Stezzi Communications

The push to reduce rates of Cesarean section has drawn fire from a group of Boston obstetricians. The physicians say arbitrary C-section targets are resulting in needlessly risky vaginal deliveries.

Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, the doctors expressed concern about small increases in rates of uterine ruptures and head injuries to babies.

The physicians blasted the Department of Health and Human Services' goal to reduce C-section rates to 15 percent by next year as "authoritarian."