2010 Stats

I meant to post this last month after I did the math, but time got away from me and I forgot.
Here are our stats for 2010. It was a great year!

Boy/Girl Babies - 42.9%/57.1%

Average Age of Mother - 28

Waterbirth - 50%

Birthstool Birth - 33%

Births with Intact Perineums or Just Abrasions - 85.7%

Episiotomies - 0%

C-sections - 0%

First Time Mothers - 21.4%

Transfer of Care (prior to the onset of labor - when pregnancy is no longer considered low risk) - 7.1%

Transport (during labor) - 7.1%

Research

US Study Highlights Homebirth Safety

Chalk up another win for the safety of homebirth. A study of low-risk births in select US birth facilities published in the January 2010 issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology concludes that homebirths are "associated with a number of less frequent adverse perinatal outcomes" when compared to births that occurred in a hospital facility.

The study, which examined 745,690 low-risk births that occurred in various US facilities during the year 2006, compared the outcomes according to birth site: 97% of the births were in a hospital; 0.6% occurred in a birth center; and 0.9% were at home.

Homebirth babies in this study experienced more frequent 5-minute Apgar scores of less than 7 and researchers noted that "compared to hospital deliveries, home and birthing center deliveries were associated with more frequent prolonged and precipitous labors."

Researchers concluded that the home and birthing center births "were associated with less frequent chorioamnionitis, fetal intolerance of labor, meconium staining, assisted ventilation, neonatal intensive care unit admission, and [low] birth weight."

— Wax JR, Pinette MG, Cartin A, et al. "Maternal and newborn morbidity by birth facility among selected United States 2006 low-risk births." Am J Obstet Gynecol 2010 202:152.e1-5

Breastfeeding lowers diabetes risk in new moms

A new study finds breastfeeding can lower the mother's risk of developing metabolic syndrome in the long run.

According to the study published in Diabetes, breastfeeding reduces the risk of metabolic syndrome — a cluster of risk factors such as elevated blood pressure, insulin resistance, and abdominal obesity linked to diabetes and heart disease — in the new mother.

Women who breastfeed tend to adopt a healthier lifestyle than new mothers who do not breastfeed and therefore lose the weight gained during pregnancy faster.

Breastfeeding for longer than nine months lowers the risk of developing metabolic syndrome by 56 percent. Each year of breastfeeding is associated with a 15 percent reduction in diabetes risk within the next 15 years.

As for women who have developed gestational diabetes during one or more pregnancies, lactation is believed to lower the risk of metabolic syndrome by 86 percent.

Scientists concluded that nursing for as little as a month or two is effective, adding that the longer a woman breastfeeds the higher the protection level will become.

CDC Says Cesarean Triples Neonatal Death Risk

by Misha Sanfranski
While the increased risks of cesarean section to neonatal and maternal health have long been known, an even more grim issue came to light in a study released in the September, 2006 issue of Birth Journal. The CDC conducted research on cesarean section and neonatal mortality, expecting to
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find that the neonatal mortality rate (defined as death within the first 28 days of life) following cesarean section correlated directly with medical complications of the mother and baby. What they found, instead, was that regardless of risk factors, babies born by cesarean section face a risk of death nearly three times that of vaginally born babies.

MacDorman, et al. analyzed national birth and death data for 5,762,037 live infants and 11,897 neonatal deaths, for the years 1998-2001. The purpose of the study was to examine the neonatal outcomes of primary cesarean delivery in women who had no other known complications or medical risk factors. The logical result of this examination would seem to be comparable neonatal mortality rates among cesarean and vaginally born infants. In fact, what the results show is that cesarean independently raises the risk of neonatal death by almost three-fold - .62 per 1000 deaths among vaginal births versus 1.77 per 1000 infant deaths among cesarean babies.

Even more astounding than the simple fact that cesarean section raises the risk of infant death - regardless of the reason the cesarean was performed - is that even when the researchers adjusted for sociodemographic, medical and congenital factors, and removed infants with APGARs under 4, the risk of death was only reduced "moderately". A stark difference in the death rates between cesarean born infants and vaginally born infants remained even with no medical explanation.

We aren't talking about babies dying from the few, rare complications that can arise in childbirth. We're talking about healthy, low-risk mothers electing for a primary cesarean section with no medical indication resulting in a nearly three times higher rate of death than those who have a vaginal birth.

According to Marian MacDorman, the CDC's study leader, "These findings should be of concern for clinicians and policymakers who are observing the rapid growth in the number of primary Caesareans to mothers without a medical indication."

While the findings of this research on cesarean and neonatal mortality were reported by major media outlets upon its release, publicity for the issue quickly waned. It is evident that care providers and mothers have continued to discount the disturbing results of the CDC study on neonatal
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mortality and cesarean, as the rate of surgical delivery has continued to climb to a record-breaking high of 31.8% in 2007, up from 31.1% in 2006.

The World Health Organization recommends no more than a 10% cesarean rate in developed countries, based upon research indicating more harm than good to both mothers and babies when the cesarean rate tops 15%. Until mothers and obstetricians start taking the risks of elective cesarean section seriously, we will likely continue to see tragic consequences of the interference of surgery in childbirth.

References:

MacDorman MF, Declercq E, Menacker F, Malloy MH.

Division of Vital Statistics, NationalCenter for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,

Hyattsville, Maryland20782, USA. Birth. 2006 Sep;33(3):175-82.

Gardasil Researcher Speaks Out

"Public Should Receive More Complete Warnings"

By Sharyl Attkisson

(CBS) Amid questions about the safety of the HPV vaccine Gardasil one of the lead researchers for the Merck drug is speaking out about its risks, benefits and aggressive marketing.

Dr. Diane Harper says young girls and their parents should receive more complete warnings before receiving the vaccine to prevent cervical cancer. Dr. Harper helped design and carry out the Phase II and Phase III safety and effectiveness studies to get Gardasil approved, and authored many of the published, scholarly papers about it. She has been a paid speaker and consultant to Merck. It’s highly unusual for a researcher to publicly criticize a medicine or vaccine she helped get approved.

Dr. Harper joins a number of consumer watchdogs, vaccine safety advocates, and parents who question the vaccine’s risk-versus-benefit profile. She says data available for Gardasil shows that it lasts five years; there is no data showing that it remains effective beyond five years.

This raises questions about the CDC’s recommendation that the series of shots be given to girls as young as 11-years old. “If we vaccinate 11 year olds and the protection doesn’t last... we’ve put them at harm from side effects, small but real, for no benefit,” says Dr. Harper. “The benefit to public health is nothing, there is no reduction in cervical cancers, they are just postponed, unless the protection lasts for at least 15 years, and over 70% of all sexually active females of all ages are vaccinated.” She also says that enough serious side effects have been reported after Gardasil use that the vaccine could prove riskier than the cervical cancer it purports to prevent. Cervical cancer is usually entirely curable when detected early through normal Pap screenings.

Dr. Scott Ratner and his wife, who’s also a physician, expressed similar concerns as Dr. Harper in an interview with CBS News last year. One of their teenage daughters became severely ill after her first dose of Gardasil. Dr. Ratner says she’d have been better off getting cervical cancer than the vaccination. “My daughter went from a varsity lacrosse player at Choate to a chronically ill, steroid-dependent patient with autoimmune myofasciitis. I’ve had to ask myself why I let my eldest of three daughters get an unproven vaccine against a few strains of a nonlethal virus that can be dealt with in more effective ways.”

Merck and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention maintain Gardasil is safe and effective, and that adequate warnings are provided, cautioning about soreness at the injection site and risk of fainting after vaccination. A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found while the overall risk of side effects appears to be comparable to other vaccines, Gardasil has a higher incidence of blood clots reported. Merck says it continues to have confidence in Gardasil’s safety profile. Merck also says it’s looking into cases of ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, reported after vaccination. ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that attacks motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord. Merck and the CDC say there is currently no evidence that Gardasil caused ALS in the cases reported. Merck is also monitoring the number of deaths reported after Gardasil: at least 32. Merck and CDC says it’s unclear whether the deaths were related to the vaccine, and that just because patients died after the shots doesn’t mean the shots were necessarily to blame.

According to Dr. Harper, assessing the true adverse event risk of Gardasil, and comparing it to the risk of cervical cancer can be tricky and complex. "The number of women who die from cervical cancer in the US every year is small but real. It is small because of the success of the Pap screening program."

"The risks of serious adverse events including death reported after Gardasil use in (the JAMA article by CDC’s Dr. Barbara Slade) were 3.4/100,000 doses distributed. The rate of serious adverse events on par with the death rate of cervical cancer. Gardasil has been associated with at least as many serious adverse events as there are deaths from cervical cancer developing each year. Indeed, the risks of vaccination are underreported in Slade's article, as they are based on a denominator of doses distributed from Merck's warehouse. Up to a third of those doses may be in refrigerators waiting to be dispensed as the autumn onslaught of vaccine messages is sent home to parents the first day of school. Should the denominator in Dr. Slade's work be adjusted to account for this, and then divided by three for the number of women who would receive all three doses, the incidence rate of serious adverse events increases up to five fold. How does a parent value that information," said Harper.

Dr. Harper agrees with Merck and the CDC that Gardasil is safe for most girls and women. But she says the side effects reported so far call for more complete disclosure to patients. She says they should be told that protection from the vaccination might not last long enough to provide a cancer protection benefit, and that its risks - “small but real” - could occur more often than the cervical cancer itself would.

"Parents and women must know that deaths occurred. Not all deaths that have been reported were represented in Dr. Slade's work, one-third of the death reports were unavailable to the CDC, leaving the parents of the deceased teenagers in despair that the CDC is ignoring the very rare but real occurrences that need not have happened if parents were given information stating that there are real, but small risks of death surrounding the administration of Gardasil."

She also worries that Merck’s aggressive marketing of the vaccine may have given women a false sense of security. "The future expectations women hold because they have received free doses of Gardasil purchased by philanthropic foundations, by public health agencies or covered by insurance is the true threat to cervical cancer in the future. Should women stop Pap screening after vaccination, the cervical cancer rate will actually increase per year. Should women believe this is preventive for all cancers - something never stated, but often inferred by many in the population-- a reduction in all health care will compound our current health crisis. Should Gardasil not be effective for more than 15 years, the most costly public health experiment in cancer control will have failed miserably."

CDC continues to recommend Gardasil for girls and young women. The agency says the vaccine’s benefits outweigh its risks and that it is an important tool in fighting a serious cancer.

Dr. Harper says the risk-benefit analysis for Gardasil in other countries may shape up differently than what she believes is true in the US. “Of course, in developing countries where there is no safety Pap screening for women repeatedly over their lifetimes, the risks of serious adverse events may be acceptable as the incidence rate of cervical cancer is five to 12 times higher than in the US, dwarfing the risk of death reported after Gardasil.”

Reducing Infant Mortality

This is an awesome video on reducing infant mortality here in the states. Take the time and watch it - it is under 17 minutes long.

Reducing Infant Mortality from Debby Takikawa on Vimeo.

Fruits, Vegetables May Protect Against Upper Respiratory Tract Infection During Pregnancy

July 16, 2009 — Consuming at least 7 servings per day of fruits and vegetables may reduce the risk for upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) during pregnancy, according to the results of a cohort study reported June 25 in the online issue of Public Health Nutrition.

"Pregnant women may require more fruits and vegetables than usual because of the extra demands on the body," senior author Martha M. Werler, MPH, ScD, from the Slone Epidemiology Center at Boston University in Massachusetts, said in a news release.

Werler, along with coauthor Lin Li, from the Department of Epidemiology at Boston University, asked 1034 North American women to report retrospectively on their fruit and vegetable consumption during the 6 months before their pregnancy and episodes of URTI during the first half of pregnancy. Cox proportional hazards models allowed calculation of multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios (HRs).

Compared with women in the lowest quartile (median, 1.91 servings per day) of total fruit and vegetable intake, those in the highest quartile (median, 8.54 servings per day) had an adjusted HR of URTI of 0.74 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.53 - 1.05) for the 5-month follow-up and 0.61 (95% CI, 0.39 - 0.97) for the 3-month follow-up. Intake of 6.71 servings per day was associated with a moderate risk reduction for URTI.

For the 3-month, but not the 5-month, follow-up, there was a dose-related decrease in URTI risk based on quartile of fruit and vegetable intake (P for trend = .03 at 3 months). However, there was no apparent association between either fruit or vegetable intake alone and the risk for URTI at 5 months or 3 months.

"Women who consume more fruits and vegetables have a moderate reduction in risk of URTI during pregnancy, and this benefit appears to be derived from both fruits and vegetables instead of either alone," the study authors write.

Limitations of this study include reliance on recall of diet and URTI, possible misclassification of exposure because of the timing of data collection, and possible residual confounding.

"If diets enriched with fruits and vegetables truly have a preventive or protective effect against URTI in pregnant women, the public health implications may be considerable given that URTI as well as treatments for URTI symptoms may affect fetal development," the study authors conclude. "However, the limitations discussed above make it necessary to replicate our findings through studies specially designed to address this question."

The National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research supported this study. The study authors have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.

Public Health Nutr. Published online June 25, 2009.

Check out this article on a study done on why women choose to stay home for their births in the US.

Staying Home to Give Birth: Why Women in the United States Choose Home Birth

Here is a quick snippet...

Women who participated in the study were mostly married (91%) and white (87%). The majority (62%) had a college education. Our analysis revealed 508 separate statements about why these women chose home birth. Responses were coded and categorized into 26 common themes. The most common reasons given for wanting to birth at home were: 1) safety (n = 38); 2) avoidance of unnecessary medical interventions common in hospital births (n = 38); 3) previous negative hospital experience (n = 37); 4) more control (n = 35); and 5) comfortable, familiar environment (n = 30). Another dominant theme was women's trust in the birth process (n = 25). Women equated medical intervention with reduced safety and trusted their bodies' inherent ability to give birth without interference.

Birth By The Numbers

Here is a great 20 minute video that will open your eyes to the current maternity system crisis here in America.
Numbers don't lie.

Birth By The Numbers

Vitamin D Insufficiency Linked To Bacterial Vaginosis In Pregnant Women

Yet another reason why it is so important to get outside and get a little sun. It is so good for you!
___________________________________________________________________

ScienceDaily (May 21, 2009) — Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is the most common vaginal infection in US women of childbearing age, and is common in pregnant women. BV occurs when the normal balance of bacteria in the vagina is disrupted and replaced by an overgrowth of certain bacteria. Because having BV puts a woman at increased risk for a variety of complications, such as preterm delivery, there is great interest in understanding how it can be prevented.

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Vitamin D may play a role in BV because it exerts influence over a number of aspects of the immune system.

This hypothesis is circumstantially supported by the fact that BV is far more common in black than white women, and vitamin D status is substantially lower in black than white women. This relation, however, has not been rigorously studied. To assess whether poor vitamin D status may play a role in predisposing a woman to BV, Bodnar and coworkers at the University of Pittsburgh and the Magee-Womens Research Institute studied 469 pregnant women.

This prospective epidemiologic study investigated the relation between vitamin D status and BV in 209 white and 260 black women at <16>

The data indicate that 41% of all enrolled women had BV, and that 93% had 25(OH)D levels indicative of vitamin D insufficiency. Overall, women with BV had lower serum 25(OH)D concentrations than those without BV (P <>

Children Who Get Flu Vaccine Have Three Times Risk Of Hospitalization For Flu, Study Suggests

So, the flu vaccine doesn't work for kids and then raises their risk of hospitalization by 3 times! Why are we continuing to encourage it? I am sure a majority of the parents who choose to get this vaccine for their child does not know about this.

ScienceDaily (May 20, 2009) — The inactivated flu vaccine does not appear to be effective in preventing influenza-related hospitalizations in children, especially the ones with asthma. In fact, children who get the flu vaccine are more at risk for hospitalization than their peers who do not get the vaccine, according to new research that will be presented on May 19, at the 105th International Conference of the American Thoracic Society in San Diego.

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Flu vaccine (trivalent inactivated flu vaccine—TIV) has unknown effects on asthmatics.

"The concerns that vaccination maybe associated with asthma exacerbations have been disproved with multiple studies in the past, but the vaccine's effectiveness has not been well-established," said Avni Joshi, M.D., of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. "This study was aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of the TIV in children overall, as well as the children with asthma, to prevent influenza-related hospitalization."

The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommend annual influenza vaccination for all children aged six months to 18 years. The National Asthma Education and Prevention Program (3rd revision) also recommends annual flu vaccination of asthmatic children older than six months.

In order to determine whether the vaccine was effective in reducing the number of hospitalizations that all children, and especially the ones with asthma, faced over eight consecutive flu seasons, the researchers conducted a cohort study of 263 children who were evaluated at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota from six months to 18 years of age, each of whom had had laboratory-confirmed influenza between 1996 to 2006. The investigators determined who had and had not received the flu vaccine, their asthma status and who did and did not require hospitalization. Records were reviewed for each subject with influenza-related illness for flu vaccination preceding the illness and hospitalization during that illness.

They found that children who had received the flu vaccine had three times the risk of hospitalization, as compared to children who had not received the vaccine. In asthmatic children, there was a significantly higher risk of hospitalization in subjects who received the TIV, as compared to those who did not (p= 0.006). But no other measured factors—such as insurance plans or severity of asthma—appeared to affect risk of hospitalization.

"While these findings do raise questions about the efficacy of the vaccine, they do not in fact implicate it as a cause of hospitalizations," said Dr. Joshi. "More studies are needed to assess not only the immunogenicity, but also the efficacy of different influenza vaccines in asthmatic subjects."

Births on cue: C-sections soar in S. Florida

More babies in Miami-Dade are now born by cesarean section than by natural childbirth, state records reveal. Experts won't predict how much higher the rate will go.

BY JOHN DORSCHNER

jdorschner@MiamiHerald.com

Last year, for the first time, more babies in Miami-Dade County were born by cesarean section than were born vaginally, according to state records, and Broward's not far behind, with a rate of 43.7 percent -- both far above the national average.

At Kendall Regional Medical Center in Southwest Miami-Dade, seven out of 10 babies were delivered by C-section, a rate that University of Miami obstetrician Gene Burkett called ``just astounding.''

Locally and nationally, the cesarean rate has been creeping up annually for years. In 2007, the U.S. rate reached 31.8 percent, according to the National Center for Health Statistics -- an increase of more than 50 percent over the past decade.

Many of the reasons have been oft-repeated: doctors afraid of being sued if something goes wrong with natural childbirth and expectant mothers, particularly professional women, wanting to schedule a birth into tight work schedules.

In South Florida, virtually no obstetrician has malpractice insurance, and most believe that they're less likely to be sued if they choose to be active in a crisis, such as operating to remove a baby from the womb, rather than allowing nature to take its course.

But Amitabh Chandra, a Harvard professor of public health policy, said Miami also has a long-standing reputation for high healthcare costs in many programs, including Medicare.

''There is an extraordinary culture of medicine you have there in Miami,'' he said. ''Miami has always been very aggressive in its practice of medicine,'' with specialists dominating treatment patterns and being highly active in care options. ``And cesareans would just be another example.''

Such decisions drive up costs. Data from the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration shows cesareans in South Florida hospitals range from $11,000 and $30,000 -- about twice the $5,000 to $16,000 range for natural births.

THE RISKS

Traditionally, many doctors have warned against cesareans because of the risks anytime a patient is cut open. ''Definitely surgery always has a chance of a serious complication,'' said Douglas Richards, a professor of obstetrics-gynecology at the University of Florida.

Still, in recent years, such warnings have been muted. ''The risks and benefits are much more balanced than they used to be,'' Richards said. ``Cesareans have become so safe and relatively easy for women.''

He means in particular planned C-sections -- ''no rushing around, the baby doesn't have to come out right away.'' Improved anesthetics allow patients to rebound quickly. ``They're happy and pain-free and walking around the first day. Many go home after 48 hours.''

There's also been an opinion shift about the risks of ''V-backs,'' giving birth vaginally after having had a C-section. Some studies have shown that in some situations, such as when the baby is in a breech position, a V-back should be avoided. ''Certain hospitals will not do vaginal deliveries after cesareans,'' said UM's Burkett, who delivers babies at Jackson Memorial, where he says the staff remains committed to V-backs if clinically possible.

Burkett and some other obstetricians also say that some women have abandoned the view that natural childbirth is a badge of honor for womanhood. ''I don't think it's so much a rite of passage anymore.'' But Zulma Berrios, chief of obstetrics at South Miami Hospital, said she has seen no evidence to back that up.

Another key issue is patient choice. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists ''now says the consumer has a right to choose'' a cesarean if they so desire after being informed of the risks and benefits, Burkett said. That's a departure from the past, when many doctors actively discouraged patients from seeking C-sections.

No one in South Florida has statistics on how many women are choosing C-sections, but Berrios at South Miami said, ''Some patients want to be on a planned schedule. They have to juggle work and the baby.'' She says many professional women, including physicians, choose cesareans because they're squeezed for time.

In fact, a recent study from the University of California-Berkeley, found that mothers who took a leave in their last month of pregnancy were less likely to have cesarean deliveries than mothers who worked right up to the end.

HEALTH FACTORS

Obesity also has become an issue. Richards says 25 percent of the expectant mothers seen in Gainesville are clinically obese at the start of their pregnancy, meaning they are more likely to have complications at birth.

More debated is the mother's ''pelvic floor.'' G. Willy Davila, a urogynecologist at the Cleveland Clinic in Weston, said natural childbirth can lead to tendencies later in life for problems like ``leaky bladders.''

Davila said for women planning to have one or two children, C-sections ''could be beneficial . . . an acceptable delivery option'' to avoid urinary problems later.

Three other ob-gyns, however, said that idea is still being debated. ''The jury is still out,'' Berrios said.

Davila and others emphasized that repeat C-sections for women planning to have many babies could pose considerable dangers. ``The risk goes way up for the third, fourth or fifth cesarean for things like the placenta being in the wrong place and other issues.''

AHCA's most recent data measured births from July 2007 through June 2008. Miami-Dade's C-section rate was 51.2 percent.

In addition to Kendall Regional, the hospitals with rates higher than 50 percent were South Miami (59.9), Mercy (58), Hialeah (52), Baptist (50.3) and Jackson Memorial (50.4). In Broward, the lone hospital higher than 50 percent was Holy Cross, at 51.6.

Many of the hospitals didn't want to discuss cesareans. Kendall Regional spokesman Peter Jude acknowledged the AHCA numbers were correct and said the hospital is ``first and foremost committed to the well being and health of our mothers and infants. There are a number of factors patients and physicians consider when determining the delivery method.''

Berrios at South Miami said her hospital has been designated a center for high-risk cases and was close to an infertility clinic, where many of the patients had various risk factors, including multiple fetuses.

Jackson Memorial's rate is high because the hospital gets most of the high-risk births for the entire county, said Burkett, noting that he had just been notified a woman carrying a fetus with heart problems was on her way from the Virgin Islands.

While supporting many reasons for C-sections, Richards in Gainesville emphasized he didn't want to appear to be endorsing rates of 50 percent to 70 percent. ''That's pretty astounding.'' He noted one reason ``not to have a more liberal cesarean policy is that babies born without labor tend to have more respiratory problems.''

Still, when Richards and three other ob-gyns were asked whether there was an upper limit on how high the C-section rate could go, in South Florida or the nation, none wanted to venture a guess. ''We just don't know,'' Berrios said.

C-Section Birth Raises Risk of Asthma in Newborns by 79 Percent

(NaturalNews) Children delivered by cesarean section (c-section) are significantly more likely to develop asthma and allergies later in life than children delivered through natural, vaginal birth, according to a study conducted by researchers from National Institute for Public Health and the Environment in Bilthoven, the Netherlands.

A c-section is a procedure in which a child is surgically removed through a mother's abdomen, rather than emerging naturally through the vaginal opening. It is medically recommended only in cases where vaginal delivery would seriously endanger the life of infant or mother, but is becoming more common as many women's preferred method of childbirth.

Researchers compared the rates of asthma and allergies among 2,917 eight-year-olds, comparing the rates between those who had been delivered vaginally and those who had been delivered by c-section. They found that the risk of asthma was 79 percent higher in those delivered by c-section compared with those delivered vaginally. The correlation between c-section and asthma risk was even higher among children born to one or more parents with allergies.

"Our results emphasize the importance of gene-environment interactions on the development of asthma in children," the researchers wrote. "The increased rate of cesarean section is partly due to maternal demand without medical reason. In this situation, the mother should be informed of the risk of asthma for her child, especially when the parents have a history of allergy or asthma."

C-section is already known to raise a child's risk of diabetes by 20 percent, compared with vaginal delivery. In spite of this known health risk, rates of the procedure have been steadily rising in the United States over the last 25 years, increasing by 46 percent since 1985 to a current level of more than 30 percent of all births.

Childhood asthma rates have also been on the rise, particularly among urban populations, with rates increasing by two to four times in the last 30 years in some countries.

Sources for this story include: www.reuters.com.

Premature Babies and the Importance of Breastmilk

Watch CBS Videos Online

Infant Mortality Rates in US, Poland and Slovakia

U.S. Infant Mortality Rate Equals that of Poland and Slovakia
By Todd Neale, Staff Writer, MedPage TodayPublished: October 15, 2008
Reviewed by Robert Jasmer, MD; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco
HYATTSVILLE, Md., Oct. 15 -- Amid hints that the U.S. infant mortality rate is starting to improve after a five-year plateau, the country continues to slide down the list of developed countries in this key indicator of national health.
The U.S. ranked 29th in 2004, with a rate of 6.78 deaths per 1,000 live births, tied with Poland and Slovakia, Marian MacDorman, Ph.D., and T.J. Mathews, M.S., of the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics here, reported in a data brief.
The U.S. had been ranked 12th in 1960 and 23rd in 1990, the researchers said.
"The gap between the U.S. infant mortality rate and the rates for the countries with the lowest infant mortality appears to be widening," they said.
Japan had the best rate, less than 3 deaths per 1,000 live births.
However, preliminary data showed that the U.S. infant mortality rate declined from 6.86 to 6.71 deaths per 1,000 live births from 2005 to 2006, marking the first drop since 2000.
Racial disparities remained in 2005, the last year with complete data, such that the infant mortality rate for non-Hispanic black women was 2.4 times the rate for non-Hispanic whites (13.63 versus 5.76 deaths per 1,000 live births).
Puerto Rican (8.30) and American Indian or Alaskan Native women (8.06) had above-average rates as well.
The only ethnic group that met the government's Healthy People 2010 target of fewer than 4.5 infant deaths per 1,000 live births was Cubans (4.42).
The researchers said that the disparities may be the result of differences in risk factors for infant mortality, such as preterm and low birth weight delivery, socioeconomic status, and access to medical care, although "many of the racial and ethnic differences in infant mortality remain unexplained."
To explain the plateau in the infant mortality rate from 2000 to 2005, Dr. MacDorman and Mathews pointed to the increase in the percentage of births before 37 weeks gestation -- which carry a higher mortality risk -- from 11.6% to 12.7%.
The rise in preterm births was partially driven by an increase in multiple births resulting from artificial reproductive technologies and in the use of Caesarean delivery or induced labor for mothers with serious medical conditions, according to Dr. MacDorman.