WASHINGTON, Aug. 15 (UPI) -- About one-quarter of all children born in the United States -- over 1 million -- are delivered by Cesarean section, a new report says.
That marks a 38 percent increase from 1997, when about a fifth of all American babies were delivered by Cesarean, the study by Health and Human Services' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality found.
Cesarean section, or C-Section as it is commonly called, is an abdominal procedure that involves making an incision in the mother's abdomen and uterus to deliver her child.
The rise was accompanied by a 60 percent decline in the rate of women giving birth vaginally after having a previous child born via C-section, and conversely, by a 33 percent rise in the rate of repeat C-sections.
The national bill for childbirth as a whole in 2003 totaled $34 billion with hospital stays involving C-section delivery accounting for nearly half this amount -- $15 billion.
Medicaid, the federal-state healthcare program for the poor, was billed for 43 percent of childbirths overall and 41 percent of those involving C-section delivery.
Data for the study were drawn from the agency's Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project, the nation's largest source of statistics on hospital inpatient care for all patients.
