What about people who choecked off vaginal delivery – but their child had low fetal oxygen etc, because of that? or take my friend’s crazy wife, who went to 47 weeks because “Doctors are teh evul.” Surely the school would want to know which moms are anti-medical nutters? That’s a lot more relevant to care of a child than whether they came out of a vagina or not.
The whole thing is completely disgusting to me. It’s nobody’s business. Any legitimate inquiry into the particular educational needs of a child the school could possibly have should be framed in terms of actual medical concerns that impact education.
I’ve been asked this question dozens of times during my little girl’s dx process with her school setting her up for services for developmental delays. It never even occurred to me that it was rude or pointless.
I can understand a school having a list of optional questions of that nature.
Gathering data and seeing how it may correlate to children’s needs and such, potentially allowing for better studies with broader polling. It’s convenient to attach those questions to an application, that will give them a better chance people complete it.
Making it required however is over the line for me, none of your business should be an acceptable answer.
This. It didn´t occurr to me that some people might be offended by the question. I answered truthfully (emergency C-section, she was a very big baby and I had preeclampsia). The school has a doctor on the premises, and they take the same kind of health history any GP does if he were to see your kid. I assumed they would like to know as much about Little Timmy´s history when he cracks his head in gym class and he has to be hauled to the doctor’s office.
This is not being asked by a doctor with a duty to care for the child. It’s being asked on an enrollment application. It’s none of their fucking business whether a child seeking schooling and legally entitled to it was born by c-section, vaginally, or hatched from an egg.
I don’t know where you live, but I don’t know any school that has a doctor on the premises. In fact, with budget cuts, most schools in my state are lucky if they have a registered RN on staff.
Besides, I’m not seeing the relevance of a c-section as it relates to him cracking his head in gym class. Yes, there are certain conditions that should be made known to the staff in case of a medical emergency: diabetes, hemophilia, HIV, etc. But being delivered by c-section? Can’t think of one reason why that would be medically relevant.
I have been asked that by every doctor she’s seen (OK, only two, she’s never been sick), the school also has a policy of not letting unvaccinated kids in, they also require a clean bill from an eye doctor and hearing doctor IIRC. Being asked about a C-section didn´t seem out of line in that context.
As I said, people have the right to be offended, but *I *didn’t find the question any more intrusive than questions about family diseases, or what her diet consisted of, so I didn’t even think twice about it until now. Of course she was a baby/toddler then, I don’t expect to be asked about a C-section when she’s, say, 13.
Again, not the US. The patient here is the custodian of his own medical file. Doctors don’t share information about a patient except by patient’s request and there is no centralized “medical file”.
Birth history is an important part of taking a full paediatric medical history, for all the reasons mentioned above. Doctors want to know if the child was premature, IUGR, could have had hypoxic brain damage or intra-uterine infections or have been at risk because of maternal health problems during pregnancy, labour and delivery.
If a child was born at 42 weeks, by an emergency c-section, after 36 hrs of difficult labour,shoulder dystocia and a Zavanelli manoeuvre and then spent 4 weeks in the NICU with a Strep infection, then hell yes it would be relevant for their doctor to know.
It isn’t a “C-section- yes or no?” question.
I’d probably say something like
“Were there any problems during this pregnancy?”
“Tell me about his/her birth”
“Was s/he on time, early or late?”
“Birthweight?”
" Need to spend any time in the NICU or SCBU?"
“Any concerns raised by you or a health or educational professional about his/her development or health?”
Whether there was a c-section or not is a part of that picture, and important for medical reasons, but not really for school admission.
Sure, if the child has behavioural, learning or physical issues I’d expect someone to ask those questions as part of an assessment, but really, not something the Kindergarden teacher needs to know routinely.
If I was going to phrase the questions I’d probably put:
" Are there any issues or concerns regarding your child’ s health and wellbeing, including pre-natal problems or issues which are related to labour and delivery, which you feel the school should be made aware of?"
Let me reiterate to the bolded - the people asking are not doctors they are school administrators. Very, very few public schools in the US have a doctor on staff or even a nurse. And they literally did ask “c-section y/n .”
Again, I have no problem with the question when asked by a doctor in the course of medical treatment. However, it is a pure irrelevancy when asked by a school on papers that determine whether a child can or should be admitted to free, state-funded schooling.