Midwife-led care through pregnancy and childbirth could be key to reducing an increasing number of avoidable caesarean births, according to a new Deakin University study. The first-of-its-kind systematic review, published today in the journal BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth , evaluated international research on a range of organisational interventions to reduce caesarean sections. It found that a midwifery-led model – where a midwife provides continuity of care through pregnancy and childbirth – had the most positive effect on reducing the number of planned caesareans and C-section rates overall. The review also showed that a policy of seeking second opinions on elective caesareans helped to reduce numbers, and midwife-led care also lowered the chance of an episiotomy. Lead researcher Professor Alison Hutchinson, Co-Director of the Centre for Quality and Patient Safety Research in Deakin’s Institute for Health Transformation, said caesarean rates in Australia had grown from 31 per cent in 2006 […]