Malpractice Premiums, Rate of C-Sections Rise Together

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The rates for malpractice rose, he said, even though both types of vaginal deliveries declined. Forceps deliveries declined from 11 percent to less than 1 percent, and vacuum deliveries went from 17.2 percent to 6.2 percent.

Nationwide, C-section deliveries accounted for 30.2 percent of all deliveries in 2005, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a record high for the nation. In 1996, in comparison, 20.7 percent of deliveries were by C-section.

Another expert said the findings are nothing new.

"These two papers do nothing more than substantiate what we already know," said Dr. Marsden Wagner, a perinatologist and former director of Women's and Children's Health for the World Health Organization.

One of the reasons for what Wagner refers to as the "scandalous " rate for C-section is that "doctors are afraid of litigation."

"Any physician who picks up a scalpel and does major abdominal surgery, which is what a C-section is, because that doctor is afraid of litigation, is not practicing medicine but is practicing fear and greed," he said.

"The increasing C-section rate has not decreased the amount of litigation," Wagner said. "So their attempt to avoid litigation by doing C-section is not working."

Spencer agreed. "The only thing to my knowledge that has changed or lowered malpractice rates are states having legislation to place caps on malpractice settlements."

More information

To learn more about C-sections, visit the National Institutes of Health.