英国禁止剖腹产以缩减开支
Cash-strapped hospitals are banning hundreds of women from having a caesarean birth, it emerged today.A number of NHS trusts have said they will only give the go-ahead for a c-section if the woman’s health would be put at risk by a natural birth.
They have launched the crackdown on women who are ‘too posh to push’ – saying it wastes millions of pounds of NHS money every year.
Most hospitals already discourage women from having c-sections by outlining the potential risks to both mother and baby.
But now some trusts are going further by ruling them out on financial rather than medical grounds – meaning it will be even harder for women to get a caesarean on the Health Service.
Some mothers have attacked the restrictions, saying it should be a woman’s right to choose how their baby is born.
One quarter of all births in the UK are now by caesarean section, up from just 9 percent in 1980, despite a campaign by the World Health Organisation which believes there is no justification for any country having a rate exceeding 15 percent.
A planned caesarean costs around ￡2,600 – much more than the ￡1,200 cost of a natural birth without complications; taking money from strained NHS budgets away from other priorities such as heart disease and cancer.
Economists estimate that a drop of 1 percent in the proportion of women having the surgery would save the NHS some ￡5.6million a year.
Dr Michael Dixon, chairman of the NHS Alliance, which represents GPs who run health service budgets, said: ‘We are going to need to balance all sorts of things in future, from cancer to heart disease. When it comes to treatments we may need to spend less on, that may be one.’
The bans only affect planned caesareans, not c-sections which are carried out for emergency reasons. And if a natural birth would pose a health risk for mother or baby, a c-section would be allowed.
Health experts have long argued that women should go for a natural birth because the risks are lower. A birth by c-section increases a baby’s chance of breathing difficulties, and mothers may find it harder to bond with a child while recovering from a major operation. They can also suffer potentially fatal placenta problems.
有消息称，由于医院资金紧张，英国成百上千位孕妇被禁止剖腹产子。
英国国民卫生服务体系（NHS）基金会所辖的多家医疗机构表示，只有当孕妇顺产面临危险时，才会允许剖腹产。
这对那些号称“分娩用力不时髦”的孕妇们是个不小的打击。据称，剖腹产每年会浪费掉NHS上百万英镑的资金。
大多数医院已经劝孕妇们不要进行剖腹产，向她们描绘出剖腹产对母婴的潜在风险。
但如今，不少基金会成员医院出于经济原因，而不是医疗原因下了剖腹产禁令，这意味着英国女性想在NHS体系内进行剖腹产更困难了。
一些妈妈们抨击了这一禁令，称怎么生宝宝是女人的权利。
英国剖腹产的比例目前是四分之一，而1980年这一比例仅有9%。世界卫生组织发起的一项活动称，任何国家的剖腹产率高于15%都是不合理的。
一次有计划的剖腹产费用大约在2600英镑左右，而顺产只需1200英镑，要低得多，而且不会引起并发症。NHS的预算本来就捉襟见肘，钱应该优先用于治疗心脏病、癌症等疾病。
经济学家估计，剖腹产率每下降1个百分点，NHS每年就可以节省560万英镑。
NHS联盟（代表执行医疗预算的全科医生）主席、迈克尔?迪克逊博士说：“未来我们需要平衡从癌症到心脏病治疗等各项医疗经费。涉及到治疗，我们要少花点儿了，剖腹产可能就是其中之一。”
该禁令只针对有计划的剖腹产，紧急实行的剖腹产不在此列。如果顺产会威胁母婴健康，允许进行剖腹产。
健康专家们一直都认为，孕妇应该首选顺产，因为风险更低。剖腹产会增加宝宝呼吸困难的机率，而在术后康复的过程中，妈妈也会发现更难和孩子亲近起来。孕妇还可能遇到致命的胎盘问题。
实习生：李帅男
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