Most obstetricians and partners of obstetricians in Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil, deliver their own children through Caesarean: a cross-sectional
survey
Abstract
Objective: To find out the preferred and actual mode of delivery of
obstetricians’ own children. Design: Cross-sectional survey. Setting:
Three Congresses of Gynecology and Obstetrics and four large maternity
hospitals in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Population: Physicians who held a
specialty degree in gynecology & obstetrics or were trainees in this
specialty and worked in the state of Rio de Janeiro. Methods: Prevalence
and 95% confidence interval. Main Outcome Measures: Preferred and
actual mode of delivery for own children. Results: A total of 465
participants answered the questionnaire in the three Congresses and four
maternity hospitals. Seventy six percent (95% CI 71 - 81) of the 262
participants who delivered at least one child had Caesarean for the
first child. Seventy two percent (95% CI 68 - 76) claimed they would
prefer a vaginal birth for their own children, but only a third of those
(34%) delivered vaginally. Conclusions: In a group of well informed,
socially privileged and empowered women (especially regarding childbirth
decisions), the most common mode of delivery was Caesarean, not the
natural vaginal birth. Thus, even for those who want to try and reduce
the number of Caesareans, it appears that their success will demand
broader strategies, than simply to focus on physicians perversely
forcing (or talking into) powerless misinformed women to deliver through
C-section; this narrative seems to be wrong, at least in the sample of
women in our study. Tweetable Among obstetricians in Rio de Janeiro 76%
had a Caesarean for their own children