Word: caesarean
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...second delivery was not so simple. Mrs. Lutz had been in labor less than an hour, when monitors detected an irregular infant heartbeat and other signs of fetal distress. A difficult natural birth might have produced a brain-damaged or even stillborn baby. So her doctor promptly performed a caesarean section, safely lifting out a 6-lb. girl. Says Mrs. Lutz: "A scar is a small price to pay for a healthy baby...
...decade ago, just one out of 20 babies born in the U.S. was, in Shakespeare's phrase, "from his mother's womb untimely ripp'd." Doctors performed caesareans only in cases in which normal delivery was impossible, or the patient refused to endure vaginal delivery. Now, there has been a sharp upswing in the number of caesareans. Last year at least one out of every ten babies in the U.S. was delivered surgically. At major medical centers, which tend to handle more problem pregnancies, the share is even higher. The University Hospitals of Cleveland at present deliver...
Doctors explain that, compared with a difficult forceps delivery, in which the baby's soft skull may be squeezed and the brain damaged, a caesarean is far more likely to produce healthy youngsters. Improved monitoring techniques also favor surgery. Because machines can reveal almost instantly if the baby's heartbeat or position in the womb is abnormal, many doctors now automatically take the caesarean route when difficulties are encountered. As a result, risky breech births-in which the baby's head is not pointing downward and must be manipulated with instruments-are easily avoided...
There is also a benefit for the physician. A doctor who does a caesarean to avoid a difficult birth can rarely be faulted legally; on the other hand, a physician who performs a forceps delivery may find himself facing a malpractice suit if the infant turns out impaired. New York Hospital's executive associate director, Melville Platt, a former practicing obstetrician, notes that such "defensive" medicine makes good economic sense. In 1969 a New York City obstetrician had to pay $3,000 a year for malpractice protection. Today the same coverage costs...
BORN. To Siem Nijssen, 27, Dutch steelworker, and Corry Nijssen, 27, his wife who had been taking hormone treatments prior to conception: sextuplets, four girls and two boys; in Leiden, The Netherlands. Born two months prematurely, the sextuplets were delivered by caesarean section and then placed in an incubator. If they survive they will become the second living set of sextuplets in the world...