Why cesarean section is prevalent among affluent women

CS is often performed whenever abnormal conditions complicate labour and vaginal delivery threatens the life or health of the mother or baby.Today however, causes and the need for CS has been expanded to take in several other factors, which according to findings is still more prevalent among the affluent women who can afford it than […]

CS is often performed whenever abnormal conditions complicate labour and vaginal delivery threatens the life or health of the mother or baby.
Today however, causes and the need for CS has been expanded to take in several other factors, which according to findings is still more prevalent among the affluent women who can afford it than the poor.
Our reporter who went round gathered that factors such as lack of exercise by pregnant women, improper diet among other factors are some of the causes of complications in pregnancy which leads to CS.
Daily Trust also learnt that while some women willingly opt for CS in order to avoid the pains of labour, others prefer it because they want their private part to remain tight so that their husbands will not chase other women outside.  
Again, it was gathered that children delivered through CS are often intelligent than those who are delivered after a prolonged labour.
A resident of Kakuri in Kaduna South Local Government, Eleojo Akuh, said she has four children and all of them were delivered without any complication or CS. According to her, her last child was even delivered at home and not in the hospital.
“All my children were delivered successfully without any problem. My last son was even delivered at home; he is about four years now. But I was attended to by a nurse called Mercy in our area. I paid her N2,000 then. CS is not very common among women who give birth in Kakuri because they don’t have the money and they don’t have so many complications like the rich women who live at the GRA.” She said.
On why CS is not prevalent among Kakuri women than those in the GRA she said: “Sometimes even some of the rich women who live in Kakuri GRA and other places normally come for antenatal in the clinic by Kakuri Air force road. The doctors do caution all of us against eating things that can lead to CS, like tea, butter and bread, milk, egg, meat and other ‘big man’ food that will make the child to be too big. But because they can afford those things they can afford CS money, they don’t listen to the doctors and they continue to eat them. Such things lead to cs.
“We do hard work more than them: we wash our clothes and our children’s clothes, we sweep the house and compound, we trek some distance to fetch drinking water and other domestic work. But in their own case the house help does everything while they sleep and watch film and whenever they want to go out the driver drives them.
“The doctors always tell us that such lifestyle is not good for pregnant women because it always causes complication at child birth which will require CS.  Whenever women who attend antenatal in Kakuri clinic give birth, you always find out that majority of the less privileged women gave birth on their own without problems, while most rich women give birth through CS.”
Esther Augustine who resides in Kurmin Gwari told our correspondent that she has six children and five of them were born at home, except only one who she delivered at the Gwammna Awan General Hospital popularly known as Nassarawa Hospital.
She said: “God knows that I am very poor that is why He helped me to deliver all my children at home. I am not the one that did it for myself but God, otherwise where would I have gotten the big money they use for CS. That is the money some of us are looking for to feed ourselves’.
Meanwhile, an event planner who resides in Barnawa GRA, Theresa Aboyi, said she gave birth to her two children without CS, adding that the reason why some of the less privileged give birth on their own is because they are stronger than the rich women due to the kind of physical exercise and domestic work they engaged in.
She said some of the women also prefer CS so that their private part won’t expand and their husband will always appreciate them, noting that it is one of the reasons why some married men chase women outside after their wives have given birth for them.
An Estate Surveyor living in High Cost area, Felicia Kwawo, said she has two children and both were delivered through CS.
She said the prevalent of CS has seriously reduced maternal mortality and infant mortality rate.
“Even though there is a popular belief that doctors use CS to make money, the fact is that CS has greatly reduced the rate of deaths at child birth where the mother or the child or both, die as a result of complications.
“Moreover, if you check or research you will find child and maternal mortality is higher among the less privileged women who deliver on their own than the rich women who opt for CS for whatever reason.
“I am not saying that CS guarantees 100 percent that the mother and child will be safe but what I am saying is that it has provided an effective remedy for tackling complications normally resulting to deaths.
“For instance, after nine months I didn’t give birth and I was overdue with one month. At the tenth month I had no alternative but to do CS and that saved a lot of things,” She explained.
However, a woman who lives in Makera area, Mama Abdul was indifferent to everything.  She said that whether a woman delivers on her own or through CS there is no any difference and no one is better than the other.
She said the most important thing is that a child is delivered and the child and mother are fine.
Mama Abdul noted that most people give birth according to their status, class and economic strength, meaning that poor women who don’t have the money deliver on their own while the rich who have the money deliver through CS.
When contacted, a gynecologist and the Managing Director of Jowako Hospital Kaduna, Dr. Rowland Ogbonna, said anyone who says Cesarean Section is more prevalent among the affluent women is not entirely correct.
He said, “And even if it is true, the point is that the rich people have an advantage. Because if a woman is in labour and she is finding it difficult to deliver after many hours, she could deliver a very weak baby.  And if such babies are delivered, they find it difficult to breath and that always affect their intelligence. But if they had delivered earlier through CS, that situation would have been avoided,” he said.
He said due to prolonged labour, babies become weak and worn out and they usually come out with a score of 6 rather than the normal 10 and that has an impact on their intelligence.
With respect to intelligence and performance in life,  Dr. Ogbonna said children who were not subjected to prolong labour tend to do better and  women who often insist on delivering on their own even when their labour is being prolong end up delivering a child of low intelligence.
“For the rich, they don’t insist that their woman must deliver on their own. But the poor will always insist and the doctor has no option. Besides, the doctor cannot pay for the CS for them.  So at the end of the day, after a prolonged labour, the baby comes out too weak. In fact, some women opt for CS because they want quality babies with good score.
“But unfortunately today, in our society, we are not talking about quality but quantity. And until we begin to give precedence to quality, we shall continue to have children that cannot pass well and do well; even their reasoning will be deficient.
“That is why it is always better to do CS than wanting to deliver on your own. In the United States of America for example today, one out of every three children delived is by CS because they want quality babies and not quantity,” he added.
On the other factors and things leading to CS like lack of exercise, diet and the others, Dr. Ogbonna said: “There are other issues surrounding CS, but I am only giving you the basic highlight.”