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Culture War Roundup for the week of March 13, 2023

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I agree. It is also worth noting that doctors will recommend limiting births after a c-section, since a woman can only have a limited number of them (2-3, depending on doctor and the hospital's policy from my limited experience) and one c-section increases the chance of needing another c-section dramatically. Some places don't even risk vaginal birth after c-section (VBAC) and will automatically schedule a c-section for women that already had one. On the margin, I do expect a higher c-section rate to decrease TFR, then, even divorced from birth trauma - which is also very very real.

However, I'm not sure how much of that can be credited to the healthcare system, rather than other factors. C-sections IIRC are more commonly needed for older mothers. In Israel, a large portion of births are from the ultra-orthodox community which starts very young. That alone can explain some of the difference. Some more of it might be explained by the stricter monitoring pregnant women undergo here, but I'm not familiar of any data on that specifically.

There is definitely policy-level pressure to reduce c-section rates/hospitals proudly citing their low C-section rates/other things going in with the C-section rate aside from younger mothers. And lots of support for VBAC and even for VBA2C