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Luxury for Health – Cesarean births ‘epidemic’ despite high risks

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Friday, October 9, 2015

Thais Faria sank into a leather love seat, relaxing under the ministrations first of a masseuse, then a manicurist and finally a hairdresser-cum-makeup artist. Not 24 hours after her daughter was born via cesarean, Faria was being pampered at an upscale Rio de Janeiro maternity clinic.
Cesarean births aren’t typically associated with luxury. But the procedures have become de rigueur among Brazil’s wealthy, with new mothers at some high-end clinics enjoying beauty treatments after the operation in a culture that has come to regard births as glamorous social events — equal parts spa, cocktail party and family get-together. In private clinics nationwide, C-sections account for more than eight of every 10 births.
Authorities want to turn the tide on what Health Ministry officials have called an “epidemic” of cesareans births in the country, with Brazil now the world’s No. 2 recipient of C-sections, second only to China in raw numbers. They have designed new rules aimed at discouraging the procedure when it’s medically unnecessary, saying C-sections dramatically raise the risk of respiratory problems for the infant and death for the mother. READ MORE