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PARENTING:CAESAREAN sections have had a bad press of late. From the recent Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) report looking at why the Caesarean section rate here increased by almost 25 per cent between 1999 and 2007, to a recent article in this newspaper which spoke of how medical monitoring of labour increased the “risk” of having “the ultimate intervention in the natural birth process”, it would seem a section is among the worse things that can happen to a mother, writes KITTY HOLLAND

To read the ESRI report, Recent Trends in the Caesarean Section Rate in Ireland 1999-2006, one could believe nothing good could come of a Caesarean birth.