A recently published study reveals that baby girls born by a cesarean section have a greater risk of suffering from type 2 diabetes decades later.
The new study, published in the JAMA Network Open, undertook an extensive research involving 33,226 women. The participants were all born between 1946 and 1964, and the researchers followed their lifestyle patterns for over 25 years. The results reveal that more than a third of the participants suffered from obesity, while 6% had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.
As compared with women who had natural vaginal births, women born by C-section have an 11% greater risk of suffering from obesity. More alarming, these women have a 46% greater risk for suffering from diabetes.
Research reveals that obesity is the greatest risk factor that leads to the development of diabetes. Initially, the researchers believed that the association between C-section births and diabetes may have been due to obesity.
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However, after controlling for the body mass index of the participants, the researchers discovered that women born by C-section had a 34% greater relative risk for suffering from diabetes. This indicates that cesarean section births are itself a risk factor that increasing the likelihood of suffering from diabetes, independent of the elevate risk factors caused by obesity.
Experts observe that these findings do not suggest that C-sections should not be undertaken, and the relative increase in the risk factors is “fairly modest”. However, many C-sections are performed without any probable medical reasoning. The new study offers substantial reasoning that indicates that undertaking C-sections without medical indication is dangerous, and its effects can lead to chronic ailments even decades after the birth.