Rates of C-sections have been climbing each year in the
past decade in the U.S., reaching a record high of 31% of
all live births in 2006. That’s a 50% increase since 1996.
Around the world, the procedure is becoming even more
common: in certain hospitals in Brazil, fully 80% of babies
are delivered by caesarean. How did a procedure
originally intended as an emergency measure become
so popular? And is the trend a bad thing?
After Mykala described the ripping and tearing that can happen (ouch ouch ouch), I never really thought about childbirth the same. Compare a woman giving birth (the incredible pain, physical trauma, etc.) to an animal giving birth… I mean baby giraffes literally fall out and everybody keeps on truckin’. Anything that gives the mother more options is a good thing, as far as I can tell, as clearly the “natural” way needs some improvement. Keep in mind that the “natural” way also used to involve dying of all sorts of infectious diseases or making it to 40-something on average.
I wonder if any social stigma around preemptively choosing a C-section was an attempt by the author to fabricate conflict for this article.
The English language has the word happenstance, which is a chance happening or event. I propose a modified version of this word as an addition to the language. When something bad happens, it’s crappenstance.
It was, in fact, as the couple learned only at the closing,
about to be condemned. There were large holes in the
roof, various furry woodland animals in residence, a
barely functional heating and plumbing system. The roof
over the master bedroom leaked so badly that the
previous owner had placed 55 aluminum baking pans on
the floor to catch the rain.
The photo gallery, featuring before and after pictures of the home, offers some more tidbits:
Early in the renovation, Mr. Giffels and the
contractor stumbled upon a treasure, $14,000 in $20
bills, wrapped in bank wrappers stamped March 15,
1930.
Cabel Sasser recently posted Japan: Muscle Park & Ninja Warrior; it illustrates some interesting differences between there and here, partly by discussing a TV game show called “Sasuke”:
And to give you an idea of how challenging the fourth and
final course is, Sasuke has run for twenty seasons, and only
two people have ever actually won. (Cultural note: can
you imagine how quickly, say, Deal or No Deal would
have been cancelled if there had only ever been two
winners in 10 years? But it’s genius: when someone fails
you feel it in your gut, and if someone wins it feels
like you’ve just watched history unfold.)
As usual, I must ask if Sagert has seen this show? Thoughts?
