Some hospitals are banning caesarean sections which are popular with stars like Angelina Jolie, seen pictured in 2008 with partner Brad Pitt while pregnant with twins Knox and Vivienne(dailymail.co.uk) |
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 [caesareans] 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. (Read by Renee Haines. Renee Haines is a journalist at the China Daily Website.) (Agencies)
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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。 相关阅读 (中国日报网英语点津 实习生沈清 编辑:Julie) |
Vocabulary: cash-strapped: 缺乏现金的;没有足够资本的 go-ahead: permission to proceed(放行信号) posh: smart, elegant, or fashionable; exclusive(时髦的,漂亮的) caesarean:剖腹产,下文中的c-section是Caesarean section(剖腹产)的缩写 complication: a secondary disease, an accident, or a negative reaction occurring during the course of an illness and usually aggravating the illness(并发症) GP: general practitioner(全科医生) placenta: 胎盘 |