¶ … C-Sections in the United States. While the article itself is not an empirical work, it draws extensively from the work of medical researchers and experts in the field. The phenomenon under consideration was the alarming increase in the rates of C-sections amongst all sectors of the American population. The writer used a bar chart to demonstrate that the numbers of C-sections have increased steadily from 1998 to 2007. The increase was from a low of 21 C-sections per 100 births in 1998, to 32 per 100 births in 2007. Overall, the numbers of C-sections has increased by more than 50% since 1996. The main hypothesis tested examined the relationship between induction and C-sections. It was hypothesized that there was a direct relationship between the induction of labor in a woman and conducting a C-section. This hypothesis suggests that as the numbers of induced labors increase there will also be an increase in C-sections. While there are multiple reasons why a doctor might induce labor in a woman, one of the companion concerns with induced...

This latter sub-hypothesis was demonstrated by showing that the dilation width when the decision to conduct a C-section was about the same as what might be observed in the initial phases of labor. This suggests that women were not in the active phase of labor when the decision to have the surgery was taken.
The study from which the data for these conclusions was drawn was conducted using a quasi-experimental design. The quasi-experimental design is similar to the experimental design with the exception that individuals are not randomly assigned to the compared groups. Based on the information provided in the article the lead researcher suggested that the findings from the research could not be considered as having the degree of internal validity desired because the women were not assigned to the induced and non-induced group randomly. This statement appears to be consistent with the quasi-experimental design.

The research…