The country with the highest rate of C-sections each year is the country of Turkey, according to the most recent statistics. Those statistics are from 2019.
In 2020, 37% of all women giving birth in Australia had a caesarean section (AIHW 2022). The increasing rates of caesarean sections may be influenced by several maternal and clinical factors and medico legal concerns, however, the reasons for the steep rise remain unexplained.
Average hospital payments are much greater for cesarean than vaginal birth, and may offer hospitals greater scope for profit. All of these factors contribute to a current national cesarean section rate of over 30%, despite evidence that a rate of 5% to 10% would be optimal. Althabe F, Belizan JF.
Caesareans were most frequent in Cyprus (54.8 % of all live births in 2017), followed by Romania (44.1%), Bulgaria (43.1%), Poland (39.3%) and Hungary (37.3%), and the least in Finland (16.5%), Sweden (16.6%), Estonia and Lithuania (both 19.4%) and France (19.7%). The source dataset can be found here and here.
Experts have categorized maternal reasons for childbirth in six main categories: the fear of childbirth, safety concerns related to health risk perceptions, negative experiences of previous births, reliance on science and surgery, access to biased information, and superstitious beliefs of inauspicious birth dates.
A C-section might be recommended for women with certain health issues, such as a heart or brain condition. There's a blockage. A large fibroid blocking the birth canal, a pelvic fracture or a baby who has a condition that can cause the head to be unusually large (severe hydrocephalus) might be reasons for a C-section.
Indeed, studies have shown that the more physicians are paid for C-sections relative to vaginal births, the higher the C-section rates become. And when these differentials are reduced, C-section rates decrease.
Australia's caesarean section rate was higher than the OECD average over this time and ranked 27th out of 34 OECD countries in 2017, with a rate of 33.7 per 100 live births (ranked from lowest to highest) (OECD 2019). In 2020, 37% of all women giving birth in Australia had a caesarean section (AIHW 2022).
In 2019, 159.1 C-sections per 1,000 births were performed in Norway. The country with the lowest rate of C-sections per 1,000 live births in 2019 was Israel. Only 150.5 C-sections per 1,000 live births happened in Israel during 2019.
Despite the life-saving value of caesareans, the World Health Organisation's recommended “ideal rate” for the procedure is 10 to 15 per cent, or one to 1.5 babies in 10, according to the study. China's caesarean rate is also higher than the world average of around one in five, the study showed.
During the 2010s, C-sections rose from 25% to about 30%-35% across England, Scotland and Wales, way above the now abandoned WHO target of 10-15%. Part of that rise comes from growing numbers of elective caesareans, and Nice believes an increasing proportion of those are requested by parents.
More women in Canada have diabetes, high blood pressure and are older, which are all contributing factors to C-sections, she said.
Which is safer: vaginal birth or C-section? Vaginal birth is much safer than a C-section for most women and babies. Sometimes a C-section is the only safe option, like when the baby is positioned side-to-side in the belly (transverse lie) or the placenta is covering the cervix (placenta previa).
Overuse of c-sections matters because, while often lifesaving in limited circumstances, the surgery also brings serious risks for babies (such as higher rates of infection, respiratory complications, and neonatal intensive care unit stays, as well as lower breastfeeding rates) and for mothers (such as higher rates of ...
About 3 out of every 5 caesarean births in Australia are planned (elective). Sometimes health problems or pregnancy complications mean that a caesarean birth would be safer than a vaginal birth.
Babies born by cesarean section don't have the same healthy bacteria as those born vaginally, but a Rutgers-led study for the first time finds that these natural bacteria can be restored. The study appears in the journal Med. Professor Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello is the senior author of the new study.
“So, every patient is different and every case is unique. However, from the current medical evidence, most medical authorities do state that if multiple C-sections are planned, the expert recommendation is to adhere to the maximum number of three.”
It has even been gaining popularity in many spots, and C-sections in Singapore are no different. While the percentage of births by C-section in Singapore accounted for 10-15% of total births in the early 1990s, the procedure now accounts for an estimated 40-45% of all births in the city-state.
Doctors would have several reasons to prefer C-sections to natural childbirth in marginal cases: more income, more convenience in planning and scheduling, and fear of malpractice lawsuits.
Caesarean section rates have increased over the last eleven years to 29.8% of all births in 2020, the highest ever recorded. Emergency Caesarean section rates have generally increased over the same period, whereas Elective Caesarean rates have remained roughly the same.
It's true that doctors do make more money from performing C-sections, but a breakdown of C-section costs shows that the difference isn't likely enough to have an influence.
Fluid retention:
C-section moms will have even more fluid retention due to fluids given inter-operatively. C-section moms will also have some tummy area swelling from the work they do inside the abdominal area during surgery.
On average, kids delivered by C-section were born slightly smaller - by less than two ounces - than those who went through vaginal birth.