NZ Cesarean Rate Rises Toward Thirty Percent

Dear New Zealand Expectant DIYFather:

When the New Zealand Government instituted a Midwifery Model in 1990 the Cesarean rate was 12.9%. By 2005 the rate was above 25% and rising. Presently the national average is approaching 30%. That means 1 in 3 pregnancy will end in a surgical birth.

Have midwives failed? Does this mean NZ women have something wrong with them? Are NZ babies more at risk from being born? None of these is even part of the reason why. The maternity services have simply missed a major component … the lack of skills by both expectant mothers and fathers. Birth is treated as something that happens to a woman rather than an activity she does. Pregnancy and birth is certainly not treated as something you, as an expectant father, also do. Big mistake.

Childbirth is dynamic.