
India has fallen prey to the cesarean epidemic that is currently affecting many countries around the world, claim researchers. The IRD researchers were able to chart some of the main trends and differentials in the country from the data issued from the latest National Family and Health Survey.
What do we know about cesarean sections, also called C-sections, in India when the country still lacks any reliable hospital statistics? With still a lot of deliveries taking place at home and no national system to track them, it would seem difficult to assess the situation. However, the data derived from the latest National Family and Health Survey conducted in 2015-2016 shed a lot of light on childbirth practices across the country. A study by IRD researchers has recently examined existing evidence and been able to chart some of the main trends and differentials.
"A first finding of this study relates to the rapid increase in the number of cesarean deliveries performed in India since the last survey conducted in 2005-2006, a transformation linked to the increasing proportion of women delivering in hospitals", declares Christophe Z. Guilmoto, demographer at Ceped research unit. 17,2 % of births in India were estimated to have been delivered by cesarean in 2010-16. This cesarean rate is already above the benchmark of 10-15 % proposed by WHO and above levels observed in richer countries such as the Netherlands or Finland.
All in all, the study estimated that the shortfall of cesarean deliveries in the poorest regions represented 2.2% of deliveries in 2010-16, while the excess observed in more prosperous populations accounted for 7.0% of them. This analysis highlights the double burden facing today India's health authorities: on the one hand, the need to improve access to secure deliveries in many districts of North India and among the poor in order to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality, and on the other hand, the challenges presented by the growing overuse of cesarean deliveries in more advanced parts of the country. For the researchers, current trends and India's economic progress suggest that the proportion of births delivered by C-section will continue to increase in the future well above medically-justifiable levels unless efforts are made to curb the over-medicalization of childbirth.
Source: Eurekalert
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