C-Sections in China, what if they are more common when parents know its a boy?

Yesterday I wrote about the relationship between the rise of consumer culture, women’s rights, and the worryingly high rate of C-section births in China, as published in the Lancet.

“…there is also a negative correlation between C-section operations and gender empowerment, and between luxury goods spending and gender empowerment.  A negative correlation means that 1) The lower the gender empowerment, the higher the rate of C-sections, and 2). The higher the luxury goods spending, the lower the gender (women’s) empowerment….

…In essence, where gender empowerment is low, male doctors, holding a large amount of authority both because they are doctors and male, can more easily pressure women into a Caesarean section than, lets say, if those women were, on the average better educated about their choices (and therefore more assertive about how their birth should proceed) and had a female doctor in their corner who would more readily respect  wishes for a natural birth.

Combined that with the previously mentioned observation that a rising consumer culture might be responsible for creating an environment where doctors are negatively incentivized, and you have yourself a pretty good place to start when looking at why China’s Caesarean rates are nearing 50%.”

Here are two additional thoughts.

China’s low gender empowerment is also reflected in the country’s preference for boys over girls.  Chinese parents are  not shy about using ultrasound to determine the sex of their children, and there is evidence that the proliferation of ultrasound machines coincides with a rise in selective abortions whereby parents.  This is also a formula for higher C-section rates. When a woman is in the doctor’s office with her husband, and they find out that the child is a boy, how great is the pressure on the woman to have a C-section if the doctor says this is absolutely the surest way to ensure the healthy delivery of the baby?

This then leads directly to the  second thought.  In that Lancet C-section study, wouldn’t it be interesting to take a look at how many of the C-section babies were boys?

Thank you to jen2most for sharing her pictures on flickr.