At 20:03 20/05/05 +0100, Ted Harding wrote (in part):
>Serendipitously, I have just come across a reference to
>the following data relating caesaren section to shoe size:
>[snip]
> P = 0.004617
Indeed so! Just as there is a very well established belief that foot size
is a good predictor of the size of certain bits of male anatomy, so is
there a belief that foot size is a good predictor of pelvis size in
women. When I was training, having a shoe size less than 5 (UK) was one of
the ways in which a pregnant woman could get a gold star (literally!) stuck
onto the front of her maternity notes.
There is no doubt that foot size correlates reasonably well with the
respective bits of male and female anatomy. However, in the male case it
has been demonstrated that there is nothing special about foot size, in
that it has no significant additional predictive ability beyond that of
measures of body size in general (e.g. height), and I strongly suspect that
the same is true of the foot/pelvis relationship in women. However, it
would not surprise me at all if women were still being asked their shoe
size when they attend for their first ante-natal ('booking') clinic!
Pelvis size is, needless to say, a crucial factor in relation to Caesarian
Section - and if below a certain size, effectively becomes an 'absolute'
determinant of the need for CS. Even in 'marginal' cases it is still a
major factor, since the cycle of compression of a foetal head as it
squeezes through 'too small' a pelvis (even if it manages to get through)
is just about the most common cause of birth trauma, leading to such
conditions as Cerebral Palsy.
Kind Regards,
John
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