C-section deliveries increased to 21.5 % between 2016-2021

A research conducted by the Indian Institute of Technology -Madras (IIT-M) revealed that C-section deliveries increased from 17.2 to 21.5 % across India during 2016-2021
The surge was observed despite reduced preganancy complications. A caesarean section (C-section) delivery is a surgical technique that involves making an incision in the mother’s belly to deliver one or more infants. When medically justified, the procedure can be lifesaving. When not strictly necessary, however, it can cause several adverse health outcomes, lead to unnecessary expenditure, and place a strain on scarce public health resources.
Factors that could contribute to adverse birth outcomes and possibly justify C-sections (such as the mother’s age being less than 18 years or greater than 34 years, the interval between births being less than 24 months or the child being the fourth or more born to the mother) are considered high-risk fertility behaviour.
In an in-depth analysis of Tamil Nadu and Chhattisgarh, the researchers found that despite the fact that both pregnancy complications and high-risk fertility behaviour were more prevalent in Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu had the higher prevalence of C-sections.
Elaborating on the importance of these findings and its implications for health policymakers in the country, Prof. V R Muraleedharan, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Madras, said, “A key finding was that the place of delivery (whether the delivery was in a public or a private facility) had the greatest impact on whether delivery was by C-section, implying that ‘clinical need’ factors were not necessarily the reason for surgical deliveries.
Across India and Chhattisgarh, the non-poor were more likely to opt for C-sections, while in Tamil Nadu, the case was surprisingly different, as the poor were more likely to have C-sections in private hospitals.”