This is why you should opt for a C-section over forceps delivery when giving birth (for you and your baby’s sake)

BABIES who are born with the help of forceps are more likely to suffer serious trauma, experts have warned.

And their mums are up to ten times more likely to suffer severe tearing and blood loss, new findings show.

Around one in eight births in the UK is an "assisted delivery".

That means a baby is helped into the world using forceps, or a vacuum - a ventouse delivery.

But now, findings suggest that could be more dangerous to baby and mum than a C-section.

Babies are more likely to suffer neonatal complications and birth trauma, the new study showed.

In 2014, in the US, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists urged more doctors to deliver babies using forceps and vacuum to avoid the need for C-sections.

But researchers at the University of Columbia found the risk of severe complications is 80 per cent higher when forceps or vacuum are used, compared to C-section.

Lead author, Giulia Muraca, a postdoctoral researcher at the university, said: "It is important to understand that similar to caesarean deliveries, forceps and vacuum deliveries are invasive procedures with their own risks.

"Risks that we have now quantified and that should be communicated to women who may encounter them, especially when the risk is as high as one in five.";

Forceps are smooth metal instruments that look like large spoons or tongs.

They are curved to fit around a baby's head and are carefully positioned and used to gently pull a baby out as mum pushes.

A ventouse is an suction cap that's placed over a baby's head.

During a contraction the doctor uses it to gently deliver the baby.

Forceps or ventouse is used during labour for a number of reasons.

If medics are concerned about your baby's heart rate, if your baby is in an awkward position and if you're too tired to push, assisted delivery is an option, the NHS states.

To better understand the risks, the researchers looked at medical records covering 187,234 births in Canada over a 10-year period.

They included vaginal, forceps, vacuum and C-section deliveries, between 37 and 41 weeks.

The researchers found in forceps and vacuum delivery the rate of severe birth trauma was five to ten-fold higher than C-section births.

Mums suffered severe tearing in 19 per cent of forceps cases, 12 per cent of vacuum deliveries and 20 per cent where both techniques were used.

Muraca said: "Women who are delivered by forceps or vacuum should be afforded the same standard of informed consent as women who consent to caesarean delivery.

"Ideally, this should take place prior to labour when women are considering their birth plans."

She said unless medics can better identify women who need assisted delivery, or improve training, they should be wary of encouraging mums-to-be to opt for forceps or vacuum over a C-section.

Encouraging higher rates of forceps… could increase rates of neonatal complications, especially birth trauma, as well as maternal complications such as severe haemorrhage and obstetric trauma such as tearing

Giulia MuracaUniversity of Columbia

"Encouraging higher rates of forceps... could increase rates of neonatal complications, especially birth trauma, as well as maternal complications such as severe haemorrhage and obstetric trauma such as tearing."

In spite of the findings, Muraca stressed there are still situations, such as when a baby is in distress, that forceps and vacuum have the potential to save lives.

That's because they are often quicker than a C-section.

The study was restricted to looking at deliveries where the baby's head was midway through the mum's pelvis.

In other situations forceps and vacuums are used when the baby's head has descended further down the birth canal.

The findings are published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

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