‘Doctors perform unnecessary caesarean deliveries for financial gains’

SRINAGAR — With alarming rise in unnecessary Caesarean deliveries in Kashmir valley, Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) on Saturday said majority of these surgeries are done for financial gains.

“Doctors are motivated by money to perform needless surgical deliveries,” said DAK President, Dr Nisar ul Hassan. “Birth has become a lucrative business in Kashmir,” he said.

He said, “There is a well-oiled nexus between private hospitals and doctors that is pushing patients into caesareans they don’t need.”

“A perception has been generated that caesareans are better than normal deliveries,” DAK President said.

“In order to convince perfectly healthy women to opt for elective caesarean section, doctors tell them about so called benefits of the surgery,” he said.

“First time mothers are especially targeted because if a woman has C-section once, she would need surgeries for subsequent pregnancies,” he said.

“Doctors make more money for caesarean than a normal delivery and hospitals rake in money for patient’s longer stay and medical attention,” he added.

“A caesarean is less time consuming and more profitable,” Dr Nisar said.

“A doctor would do 12 caesareans in the time it takes to do one normal delivery. In government hospitals too, surgical births have increased dramatically,” he said.

“To learn the technique, postgraduate students perform caesareans when they are not required,” he revealed.

“C-section delivery is a surgical procedure used to deliver a baby through incision in the abdomen and the uterus,” Dr Nisar said.

“While WHO states that Caesarean rates should not be more than 10 percent of the total deliveries and must be performed in emergency cases, the rates at Kashmir hospitals are as high as 80 percent,” he said, adding that unnecessary Caesarean-section delivery is risky to both mother and child.

For mother, C-section raises the chances of complications such as blood loss, infection or blood clots. Studies indicate that the chance of maternal mortality is 4-5 times after an elective caesarean than a normal delivery.

For the new-born, it means delayed breast feeding, lower birth weight, respiratory problems and increased rate of hospitalization.

“The natural birth is the ideal way and if it was better to deliver through the stomach, nature would have surely made it so,” said Dr Nisar.