Too posh to push? Notts women prefer to give birth natural way

NEW figures suggest that women in Notts are certainly not "too posh to push".

When it comes to giving birth, Nottingham's hospitals have some of the lowest Caesarean section rates in the country.

Only 21 per cent of women who gave birth at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust ended up having the operation.

It means that of the 10,000 babies born at the Queen's Medical Centre and City Hospital about 2,100 mums had a Caesarean section in 2012.

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Women giving birth at Chelsea and Westminster and University College London Hospital trusts notched up the highest rate of Caesarean deliveries last year at 33 per cent – the national average is 25%.

Jennie Boutard, 35, of West Bridgford, who gave birth to twin girls in 2009, said: "I think there are two cases around this issue. There are those women who end up having a Caesarean because they want to have more control of when they give birth, and they want it to fit in with their diaries.

"And then there are those who have to have a Caesarean when it becomes a necessity – which was the case with me."

Mother-of-one Lauren Hunt, 25, of Sherwood, said: "For me having a natural birth was an important part of my venture into motherhood."

Sherwood Forest Hospitals Trust – which runs King's Mill Hospital in Sutton-in-Ashfield and Newark Hospital – has the lowest Caesarean section rate in the East Midlands with 18.6 per cent of women having the procedure.

Delivering a baby by Caesarean section costs the NHS several times more than a natural birth, and doctors warn that mothers who have the operation risk health problems in later life.

Research shows that it makes women three times more likely to need a hysterectomy after their next pregnancy, and raises the risk of death, blood clots and breathing problems in infants.

The NHS figures, which cover 2011-12, showed that the overall Caesarean section rate had only risen by 0.2 per cent, despite the introduction of new guidance in late 2011 stating that every mother should have the freedom to choose.

The Royal College of Midwives said it would like the number of Caesarean operations to come down, but stressed that it supported the right of every mother to make their own choice.

Janet Fyle, midwife adviser at the Royal College of Midwives, said: "I do not think it is only a 'too posh to push' scenario. There are some women who are fearful of the whole business of labour and giving birth. Sometimes this is from experience."