About the risks of caesarean section for both the mother and the baby, we have talked on occasion, the best known being the risk of bleeding or infection in the mother and other derivatives of the same surgical intervention.
In the case of babies, they are more likely to be born with a lower Apgar and require respiratory assistance, in addition to some respiratory problems afterwards, because they are born with lungs filled with amniotic fluid (in vaginal delivery babies "squeeze "and they expel it by themselves before they start breathing).
In addition to these risks for babies, one that few people talk about is added: risk of injury to the baby with the scalpel.
What is the risk
The risk is not very high and the wounds are usually unimportant, but sometimes they appear in visible areas or are considered serious.
- A retrospective study conducted in the USA in 1997 in which 896 deliveries with caesarean section were analyzed shows that the risk of a baby suffering an injury or injury during caesarean section is 1.9%.
- Another study carried out in Italy in 2004, with a sample of 3,108 women who had had a C-section, concluded that the risk was 3.12%.
- From Childbirth is Our figures come from a study conducted in Germany and Austria, which speaks of 9% of babies born with some type of injury, be it a wound, be it a fracture, usually of the clavicle (perhaps by adding the fractures the percentage of risk soars in relation to the other studies).
Wound location
In any case there is babies with scalpel wounds, whose location is usually the head or back. The most common is that it is in the head and that when the hair grows they hide, but sometimes, as in the girl in the photo that you can see above, the wound is on the face and, therefore, visible.
This is the daughter of one of the mothers who participated in the last study mentioned, whose images and results have been published in the book Faceless Cesarean.
