Replying to a message of Andy Ball to Danny Ceppa:

 AB> Hello Danny,

 DC>> Natural childbirth is still safer.

 AB> It's safer in that it's not major abdominal surgery.  It's important
 AB> to note though that in some cases a vaginal delivery is simply not
 AB> possible.

 DC>> The main reason caesariens are up is for convenience
 >> of the mother.

 AB> I doubt that.

I read that some years ago.  Someone - and IIRC a physician - was
upset that so many elective Caesarians were being done.  While *some*
of them are medically necessary, most were (and presumably still are)
done for the convenience of the mother (i.e. it doesn't go on for hours,
it doesn't hurt, the time is predictable, etc.).

And not just for the mother, there was a recent story where a woman was
induced to deliver a couple of weeks early because her hubby had Super Bowl
tickets and she (they) didn't want a little thing like childbirth to interfere
with the really important stuff like a football game.

And BTW, I don't have the statistics at hand, but I think Caesarians are
safer than natural childbirth.  I suppose the numbers are on the Web someplace,
but I won't be able to get on the Web until Tuesday morning.

--- FleetStreet 1.19+