Obstetrics -An art

It is disturbing news to note that the percentage of deliveries through Caesarean section has more than doubled in Chennai over the past five years. At least one in every three women in the city now opts for a C-section instead of normal childbirth. ( Times of India News to-day)
Many of the current day doctors are not obstetricians, but surgeons . Obstetrics is an art which comes out of managing thousands of child births by a policy of waiting and watching and allowing Nature to complete the process of child birth . Waiting and watching is not inaction. An obstetrician interferes only when the need arises.
I learnt obstetrics under great stalwarts like Dr,Krishna Menon, Dr. E.V. Kalyani and Dr.Madhavi Ammal. I practised obstetrics as an young doctor in a rural setting with an able guidance from an experienced midwife.I do not remember to have referred any labor case to a bigger hospital for C-Section.
Midwifery has shown me the surprising beauty and reward of doing nothing. Sometimes I will physically sit on my hands at the hospital to remind myself to wait and watch. Mothers are to be equally blamed for dying art of obstetrics.
Gopalan