Portland Hospital, London - two women died after caesareans

[PurpleBasil]

Really sad. This is the same hospital where Duchess of York and Patsy Kensit gave birth and I believe Victoria Beckham had her two caesarean sections at this hospital.

What is the death rate for women after caesarean, does anyone know? I had heard 1 in 2500 women will die after a c-section but I lost my link for that stat. I think it was in the bmj.

I hope an inquest is done and this hospital is shut down.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/1937466.stm

[copslass]

I don't have a ratio figure, but the death rate has been estimated at at least twice as high than normal birth for mothers.

Hardly "just another birthing option."

Those poor mothers and babies.

[Quirky]

Well, for the first woman, it doesn't say it was after a cesarian.

Both cases are tragic, obviously, but it does happen that women die during and after vaginal birth as well.

[PurpleBasil]

Yes, that article was not clear. sorry. Here is a better description and states that both women had caesarian sections.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/st...6140%2C00.html

[Quirky]

I stand corrected. Either way, it's very sad, but it's also so true that women aren't infomed of the risks of cesaerians in way too many cases.

[copslass]

Yes, deaths can and do happen during a physiologically normal birth.

It is an entirely different situation when over 26% of babies are pulled into the US through a gaping, bleeding surgical wound in their mothers' bellies, AND we rank around 24th in the world for infant mortality. Something is *dreadfully wrong here.

ICAM, Quirky, that it is true that women aren't adequately informed about the true risks of c-sections. When talking to doctors, women are certainly "informed" about the small risk of rupture (funny, rupture is never mentioned when doc is pushing the pitocin on a primipara,) and rarely hear much at all about the serious risks of cesarean surgery to both mother and baby, comparitively.



Can you tell I feel rather strongly about this?!

Anyway, do any of you remember the mom who lapsed into an unexplained coma during a c-section, and "woke up" 16 years later? Seems to me it was around 1999-2000.

[Piglet68]

when I last researched the stats, before my first baby, the death rate was 1/10,000 for vaginal and 1/5000 for cesarian. didn't take into account c/s that were performed for medical emergencies thus possibly biasing the results. yes, it's double the rate, but still not all that high relatively. i'm less concerned about mortality and more concerned about the societal risks of overmedicalized birth.

[bwylde]

More hospitals should be like mine where they scare the dickens out of you, they're so anti-section (I ended up needing one for medical reasons, but I heard on a regular basis beforehand all the dangers involved and I was well informed).

I think it's tragic this happened (almost 2 years ago, btw..wouldn't the inquest of occured by now?). For one, they didn't moniter the blood pressure? And the other she had trouble breathing and they didn't give her the breathing tubes for an hour and a half?? Those sound like neglect on the caregiver's part and possibly could have been prevented.