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Editorial

As rate of C-sections rises, change in culture is needed

  November 13, 2011

Caesarean sections are on the rise, both nationally and in Massachusetts. Over the last four decades, the rate has gone from 5 percent of births nationally to almost 33 percent. In Massachusetts, the rate is 34 percent. Although health care specialists have long worried about the trend, the percentages have just kept going up. Some variables that often lead to C-sections - the age of the mother, a multiple pregnancy, and the US tendency toward obesity - are outside a hospital’s control.

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