Online petition seeks guidelines for C-section

The petition with the hashtag #SafeBirth has been filed with the support of NGO Birth India on change.org, a popular online petitioning platform. The petition has attracted strong support from several women in Chennai. 

“I wanted to have a natural birth but had to undergo a C-section as it was presented to be more ‘scientific, modern and risk-free,” Subarna wrote in the petition. 

The petition to the Union Women and Child Development Ministry also demanded an enquiry against hospitals reporting abnormally high C-section cases, as well as frame clear guidelines to safeguard the health and rights of women and children. 

While women complain that their recovery after C-section delivery is very long and extremely painful, it has been seen that the number of deliveries using this method is on the rise. “Over 50 per cent of all deliveries in most tertiary hospitals in the state are caesarean,” said Dr S Srinivasan, head, Neo Natal Intensive Care Unit at the Institute of Child Health and Children’s Hospital, attributing the same to lifestyle changes. 

Doctors claim that the drastic change in the lifestyle of women, is what is responsible for the increase in the number of C-section deliveries seen today. “Women stay away from any sort of physical exercise during their pregnancy. How then will her muscles react for normal delivery? Even if the woman prefers natural methods, their muscles simply do not cooperate,” said Dr Sampath Kumari, a member of the Federation of Obstetrics and Gynaecologists in India (FOGSI).