The most common type of hospital surgery in the United States is the cesarean section--more than one-million such procedures are performed annually (Stafford 59-63). Cesarean sections represent approximately one-quarter of total deliveries, and the use of the procedure has more than quadrupled over the past 25 years.
Some observers contend that many cesarean sections are unnecessary surgeries, and that the women involved in these particular cesareans would be better served by vaginal deliveries (Brick 17). While this essay presents arguments supporting this position, it would be fruitless to state that this essay proves that a significant proportion of cesarean surgeries are unnecessary, for if such proof existed the controversy that surrounds this issue in the health care community would not exist. Rational arguments may be made on each side of the contention that cesarean section is an abused surgical procedure. This essay presents and defends the position that the cesarean section is an abused surgical procedure.
There is no "smoking gun" in the form of hard data indicating that a specific proportion of cesarean sections are unnecessary and thus reflects surgical abuse (Flamm, Goings, Liu, and Wolde-Tsadik 927-932). Rather, support for a contention that some cesarean sections represent unnecessary surgeries must be provided within the context that a substantial proportion of the cesarean sections performed are not justified by relevant clinical factors. Localio, Lawthers, Bengston, Hebert, Weaver, Brennan, and Landis (367) identified 19 clinical risk factors the presence of which justify a delivery by cesarean section. Localio, et al. (367) found that the diagnosis rates for these 19 clinical risk factors ranged from 0.1 percent (uterine rupture) to 8.7 percent (dystocia). Localio, et al. (367) found that the overall rate for the presence of these risk factors was 4.4 percent. The rate of cesarean section deliveries...