Word: caesareans
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With Mrs. John F. Kennedy scheduled to have her third baby by caesarean* section this summer, the operation is likely to become as well publicized as the President's 50-mile hikes. For healthy mothers, it is hardly more dangerous. Many women still fear a succession of caesareans and believe that the third must be the last; after that, they think, the risks are too great, and the only thing left is to have a hysterectomy to prevent future pregnancies. Fact is, such fears are usually communicated to women patients by obstetricians who are still devoted...
...Fallacy. As though anticipating the Kennedy caesarean, three obstetricians at Washington's Providence Hospital have just reviewed their experience over eleven years (1952-62 inclusive), in what they point out is "a community hospital under religious [meaning Roman Catholic] supervision, where sterilization is not permitted except for definite pathology...
Then a baby was stillborn by Caesarean section in 1956. Caroline and John Jr. followed, both by Caesarean. The new arrival, too, will likely be by Caesarean...
Obstetricians have long noted that babies suffering from such troubles either were delivered by Caesarean section, or were premature infants, or born of diabetic mothers. But in the A.M.A. Journal, a group of pediatricians* from the University of California suggests that the most important factor is the time at which the obstetrician clamps and cuts the infant's umbilical cord...
...mere scientific oddity, says Dr. Smyth: testing the fetus' response to sound enables the obstetrician to judge its health. In the series tested, two babies reacted normally at 30 weeks but failed at 34 weeks. Both were stillborn to diabetic mothers. Presumably, they could have been saved by Caesarean delivery if the change had been caught in time...