Planned Cesarean Increases Childhood Health Problems

The New York Times reports on an analysis of health issues in children according to their mode of delivery. The study compares health problems in the offspring of 321,287 1st-time mothers in Scotland. Compared with vaginal birth, planned cesarean resulted in more incidences of asthma requiring hospital admission (3 more per 1000), inhaler prescriptions at age 5 (7 more per 1000), and death (0.8 more per 1000).
Compared with unplanned cesarean, more children delivered by planned cesarean developed Type 1 diabetes (2 more per 1000). Study authors note, however, that they were unable to adjust for some important confounding variables.