WEDNESDAY, May 20, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- Women who deliver their first baby by cesarean section are more likely to need blood transfusions and be admitted to intensive care units than women who opt for a vaginal delivery, U.S. health officials reported Wednesday.
In addition, after that first C-section, nine out of 10 women will have their next infant delivered the same way, report author Sally Curtin, a statistician at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics, told HealthDay.
Other key findings showed that rates of complications were higher for cesarean than vaginal deliveries. Transfusion and intensive care unit admissions rates were highest for first-time cesarean deliveries (525 and 383 per 100,000 live births), and rates of ruptured uterus and unplanned hysterectomy were highest for repeat cesarean deliveries (89 and 143 per 100,000 live births). Higher rates of complications for cesarean compared with vaginal deliveries were found for nearly all age groups and for women from all racial and ethnic groups. Additionally, women who had vaginal deliveries had lower rates for all complications compared with those who had cesarean deliveries.
Women who had a cesarean delivery but who had a vaginal birth for a second baby had lower rates for most complications. But those who failed labor had more complications than women who scheduled repeat cesarean deliveries. This was especially true for ruptured uterus, which was about seven times higher (495 per 100,000 live births compared with 66 per 100,000 live births).
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