Repeat cesarean sections are relatively safe, a new study found.
In the study, the research team headed by Mairead Black of Scotland's University of Aberdeen set out to examine any health effects that a second C-section could have on the child. Previous studies have been focused on the risks involved for the mother, but not many have looked into the long-term health consequences for the child.
The researchers analyzed data on 40,145 women from Scotland who had a history of C-section. All of the women had given birth to their second child anywhere from January 1993 to December 2007 via a planned C-section, unplanned C-section or a vaginal delivery. The researchers monitored the children's health outcomes when they were 5. Potential outcomes included obesity, asthma that required hospitalization, cerebral palsy, learning disabilities and death.
Overall, the researchers concluded that repeat C-sections should be considered safe even though risk of hospitalization due to asthma was slightly higher in children who were born through a C-section as opposed to a natural birth. The rates of prescription inhalers, however, were pretty much the same in all three groups. The researchers also found a slight increase in the children's risk of having learning disabilities and death if they were born through an unplanned C-section and not a vaginal birth.
"Greater risk of death and learning disability following unscheduled repeat CS [C-section] compared to VBAC [vaginal birth after CS] may reflect complications during labor," the authors wrote. "Further research, including meta-analyses of studies of rarer outcomes, are needed to confirm whether such risks are similar between delivery groups."
The researchers noted that since cases can vary, pregnant women should always discuss their individual risks with their doctors when it comes to choosing how they want to deliver their baby.
"Overall, the right decision about a planned birth mode, vaginal or cesarean, depends on the individual case of mother and child," the authors continued. "The findings here suggest that there are no substantially worse outcomes associated with planned repeat cesarean births. They, therefore, support a process of planning birth after a previous CS that reflects a woman's values and preferences."
Within the United States, vaginal births are still more common than C-sections. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that in 2014, 32.2 percent of all deliveries occurred via C-section.
The study was published in PLOS Medicine.
