Catemaco Cut and Dice

Cesarean sections instead of natural birth are a gift for women fearful of pain, late for an appointment, concerned about fatty tissue, or actually having a health problem requiring this surgical intervention.

The procedure is also alleged to increase complications in both mother and baby, and additionally to create havoc with financial planning among the parents, especially among the lower economic stratum of society of which most of Catemaco consists.

In beautiful downtown Catemaco, Veracruz, I recently counted three cesarean sections. (Big deal! These were the only pregnant women I knew in Catemaco. So I studied the subject a little.)

It turns out that Mexico has a 34% cesarian rate, well above the 29% US rate, and substantially below the 50% rate in South Korea. Mexican private hospitals are way above the 50% rate of cesarean versus vaginal deliveries.

So I asked my intern doctor, daughter of my resident Popoluca. Yes, most cesareans are performed not because of necessity. Yes, people pay bribes to have the operation performed. Yes, many gynecologists prefer to perform cesareans to not interfer with their social life when attending interminable labor pains.

A cesarean birth delivery is indicated if either the baby or the mother’s health are in danger. The UN (United Nations) maximizes the percentage of live births subject to cesarean intervention to 15% as the probable percentage of needed intervention.

Unfortunately no exact long term studies have been done on the differences between cesarean and natural births. Folklore heavily leans to the natural birth side, so the use of cesarean methods, at present, seems to be a judgment call.

As far as an impoverished country like Mexico, and especially its provinces, cesarean operations are a heavy duty consumer of available health resources. In that impoverished environment, cesarean births cost Mexico millions of pesos more than natural births.

Those three babies in Catemaco are doing great. One paid 1,600 subsidized pesos at the Catemaco Hospital, another paid 6,000 pesos at the Mexfam clinic, the third paid 10,000 pesos at a private sanatorium.

That is still a lot cheaper than liposuction.