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C-sections also boost the odds of certain problems with later pregnancies, including abnormalities in the placenta that can lead to severe bleeding during labor.

According to Macones, a number a factors have likely driven the rise in the U.S. C-section rate. Some women request the procedure, for instance, so as to choose when they give birth or to avoid long labor.

And obstetricians may be quicker to do them now than in years past. Worry over being sued should something go wrong during natural labor and delivery is one factor, according to Macones.

But he said there are potential ways to bring the C-section rate to a more appropriate level.

"I think the most important is to try to avoid first cesareans, and do them only when indicated," Macones said. One way to do that, he added, is to limit labor inductions to only cases where they are necessary.

Midwives, from time immemorial, have been the principal guides for women in childbirth. But their expertise and their role has been compromised in many industrialised countries. With the demise of traditional midwifery, we have the rise of medicalised birth. As we've lost our guides to childbirth, we have lost sight of the meaning of birth.

The Ecologist meets pioneering midwife Ina May Gaskin, who has helped thousands of women tap into their inner mammal. ‘If chimpanzees can do it, so can we,' she says. The practical consequences of fear in childbirth are proven: instead of oxytocin, the love hormone that open up the body, we have adrenaline, which shuts down our natural processes. This leads to, for many, a cascade of interventions. Having the right hormones makes a huge difference in the kind of birth you have. This is what doctors don't tell you.

Whatever their motivation, all are among a striking trend: Home births  increased 20 percent from 2004 to 2008, accounting for 28,357 of 4.2 million  U.S. births, according to a study from the Centers for Disease Control and  Prevention released in May.

While it is much easier to perform a C section than successfully deliver a  breech baby vaginally, says Prof. Glezerman, many women can benefit medically by  the return to traditional techniques. "We are trying to unite obstetricians and  midwives in the field to revive vaginal delivery for breech presentations," he  notes. Prof. Glezerman's initiative provides scientific evidence to those  physicians and midwives looking to return to more traditional birth methods for  breech.

Back to the future

Prof. Glezerman says that retraining the obstetrics community in these  traditional methods is an urgent task, because the medical field now has two  generations of medical residents with hardly any training in vaginal birth for  breech deliveries. "The skill has disappeared," he explains. "Residents are no  longer taught these techniques, and senior physicians are doing it less and  less. We need to go back to the future and relearn what has been forgotten."

At the Rabin Medical Center in Israel, Prof. Glezerman runs workshops for the  newest generation of gynaecologists and obstetricians on techniques for vaginal  delivery for breech babies. His courses include techniques of breech delivery,  changing presentation from breech to head and management of different breech  presentations. With these workshops, Prof. Glezerman hopes to reintroduce  critical delivery skills into the field, and raise awareness that breech  presentation of babies does not always necessitate C-section deliveries.

Of course, says Prof. Glezerman, physicians still need to be able to  recognize dangerous risks when they arise. In those cases, vaginal delivery is  not a viable option ― but doctors must judge each situation individually.