Early Elective Deliveries May Trigger Birth Injuries

Early Elective Deliveries May Lead to Birth Injuries (February 5, 2011) A patient-safety support group said last week that early elective deliveries can put infants at an increased danger of birth injuries, lifelong health challenges and even death. The Leapfrog Group, a voluntary program dedicated to educate America’s health industry about health care safety, quality and customer value, presented the findings in a press release last week to inform parents-to-be about the risks of elective early deliveries. Dependant on the employer-driven hospital quality watchdog, some hospitals are delivering more than 40 percent of newborn babies early for no medical reason. In a hospital survey conducted by Leapfrog, it shows most hospitals are allowing early deliveries, which result in higher birth injury and infant mortality rates and permanent health problems. Among the 773 hospitals in the United States, the hospital quality watchdog found a wide range of inconsistencies between how often early elective deliveries were conducted from one facility to another. Based on the findings, some medical facilities had early elective deliveries lower than five percent, while some had greater than 40 percent. An early elective delivery, medically known as cesarean section, is a surgical procedure made through a mother’s abdomen to deliver one or more babies. It is commonly recommended when vaginal delivery may pose a risk to the mother or baby. However, there are cases when early elective deliveries pose a risk not only to the mother, but also to the newborn babies in the form of birth defects or birth injuries. Medical experts said infants must not be born before 39 weeks, unless their health care provider deemed it necessary. They said babies need to complete at least 39 weeks inside the mother’s womb to fully develop because the brain, lungs and other organs are not completely developed until the last few weeks of gestation. As a result, Leapfrog urged all hospitals nationwide to reduce their early elective delivery rates to less than 12 percent. On February 15 and 17, Leapfrog will host national webinars for health care professionals helping them put into effect guidelines for early elective delivery measures.

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