It is now well above the World Health Organisation's recommended level of 10-15 per cent.One factor behind the rising trend is thought to be that middle-class women dubbed "too posh to push" are demanding Caesareans, in the belief that they are safer, and obstetricians are becoming less resistant.Celebrities including former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham, actress Patsy Kensit and presenter Zo?all have fuelled the trend. The survey found that seven per cent of all Caesareans were in response to a request from the mother and were carried out for no medical reason.The rise is accelerating because women who have had one Caesarean are more likely to deliver the same way the next time. Fear of litigation has also been suggested but researchers said there was no evidence that it was a reason for the rise.Jane Thomas, chief author of the survey, said: "The threshold [for performing a Caesarean] may well have moved as mothers get better at asking for what they want and clinicians become less worried about it."Most consultants (78 per cent) felt that a planned Caesarean was not the safest option for the mother although half (51 per cent) felt it was safest for the baby.However, the balance of risks and benefits is still unclear. The main risks of a Caesarean are infection and thrombosis (blood clots) while the risks of vaginal birth are thought to be damage to the pelvic floor which can result in incontinence. But experts say it is uncertain whether the damage to the pelvic floor is caused during delivery or earlier, during labour, when the nerves in the region are squeezed.Mary Newburn, head of policy at the National Childbirth Trust, said: "This unnecessary use of surgery increases serious health risks for women and babies."The Caesarean rate was higher in London and Wales (24.2 per cent) and lower in the North-east (19.3 per cent).

The highest rate was in the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man (24.8 per cent).Professor Bill Dunlop, president of the RCOG, said: "The audit shows marked variations in rates across the country and that obstetricians are rightly concerned that the Caesarean rate in the UK may be too high. We need to make sure that when Caesareans are carried out they are done in appropriate circumstances."Guidelines for maternity units based on the findings will be drawn up by the National Institute for Clinical Effectiveness (NICE), Jacqui Smith, a health minister, said. "Women should be free to make choices during their pregnancy," she said.. Vera Donovan, 31, a nanny in north London, was determined to have a Caesarean when she became pregnant with her daughter Cuisle, now aged two.

Vera Donovan, 31, a nanny in north London, was determined to have a Caesarean when she became pregnant with her daughter Cuisle, now aged two."I thought about my baby's head and my vagina and I just felt a natural birth was like something out of the caveman age. I don't know what women get from going through that pain and trauma. I have been a nanny for years and I love having children around me but I don't like the word natural. There is nothing natural about childbirth."She added: "The risks didn't enter my head. As long as the baby was going to be OK, that was what mattered. I couldn't see how lifting the baby out could be worse than squishing her through the canal.

Afterwards, I was on the same ward as someone who had had their baby naturally and she couldn't sit down She had been ripped to shreds like some animal. I just felt having a Caesarean was a so much more humane way to do it."Ms Donovan has been diabetic since the age of 13 and was told early in her pregnancy that a Caesarean was a possibility on account of her condition but did not have it confirmed until the seventh month.The problem for diabetics is that their babies tend to be larger than normal, making delivery more difficult. But Ms Donovan strictly controlled her diet and when Cuisle was born she weighed in at just 6lbs 8 ozs. Still, she saw no point in trying and failing to have her baby normally when she could opt for a Caesarean."I found it bizarre that they would let a woman go for 12 hours in labour only to see it end with an emergency Caesarean. You have to do all that waiting to see whether you dilate so many centimetres in so many hours. It is so much nicer if you can adjust to what you are going to go through and prepare for it."She had an uncomfortable pregnancy, suffering from a condition which affected her joints, and spent the last weeks on crutches – making her even more determined that labour should be manageable."I couldn't wait for that epidural to go in.

They made three attempts which was horrible but then I just lay back and it was wonderful.". Couples will be cautioned against having unprotected sex while on a course of fertility treatment after an American women gave birth to quads, at least one of which was conceived naturally. Couples will be cautioned against having unprotected sex while on a course of fertility treatment after an American women gave birth to quads, at least one of which was conceived naturally. The woman's doctors believe it is the first time that conception from intercourse and from IVF has been reported in the same cycle, according to a report in the journal Human Reproduction.Dr Amin Milki, of Stanford University, California, said the woman had two, five-day embryos transferred to her womb after fertilisation in a test tube. But a scan at seven weeks revealed she was carrying quads and she gave birth at 32 weeks to a boy and a girl with separate placentas and two girls with fused placentas.DNA evidence and tests on the placentas showed the boy and the girl were fraternal twins, and the other two girls were identical twins derived from a fertilised egg which had split before implantation.Dr Milki said: "The couple had intercourse just five days prior to the retrieval of eggs for IVF. It is just possible the identical twins could have resulted from one of the transferred embryos splitting.But even if that were true at least one foetus would have been conceived spontaneously."Because multiple pregnancies put mothers and babies at a higher health risk, Dr Milki said IVF patients should avoid unprotected sex as soon as the early days of ovarian stimulation were over.. Women are nearly twice as likely to contract breast cancer if they have a mother, sister or daughter who has fallen victim to the disease, according to a landmark new study published. Women are nearly twice as likely to contract breast cancer if they have a mother, sister or daughter who has fallen victim to the disease, according to a landmark new study published. If women have two affected relatives, they are three times more likely to develop the disease than other women, and the risk quadruples if three first-degree relatives are affected.But most women with a family history of breast cancer will never develop the disease and most of those who do will be over 50 when the cancer is diagnosed.