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C-sections are being performed more and more frequently
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
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Modern medicine ensures the birth of a child, the happiest event in the life of almost every woman, is as safe as possible. But the emergence of new technologies does not always lead to improvements, such as cesarean section. Initially, cesarean section was performed to save the child, the life of the mother was secondary. Now such an operation is as safe as possible, both for the life of the woman and for the child, in some countries cesarean section is increasingly performed without medical indications and doctors themselves persuade women to undergo the operation, even if the condition of the woman in labor allows her to give birth on her own at home.
In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of caesarean sections; in Turkey, more than 40% of births are performed using surgical intervention, which is 25% higher than in European countries.
WHO has already noted that the optimal rate of cesarean section should be considered to be 15%, when a cesarean section is the only way to save the life of a woman or child.
The sharp increase in such operations may be due to many reasons, including a woman gaining too much weight during pregnancy, lack of postpartum care services, incorrect positioning of the baby in the womb, the prevalence of artificial induction of labor, a woman's reluctance to give birth on her own (fear of pain, contractions, possible ruptures, etc.), and the profit of medical personnel - gynecologists, obstetricians, anesthesiologists (carrying out procedures according to a schedule, receiving a bonus for performing an operation, etc.).
Despite the fact that with operative delivery the mortality rate of women and morbidity are several times higher compared to natural childbirth, cesarean section has a number of advantages:
- low risk of developing postpartum urinary incontinence syndrome (in 5% of cases)
- saving the life of a child (for example, if the fetus is in an incorrect position in the womb, which can cause severe hypoxia during natural childbirth)
- Caesarean section allows you to independently determine the date of birth of the child
- Surgical delivery frees a woman from the long process of contractions.
At this stage, WHO in European countries intends to ensure that every woman has the opportunity to give birth safely, and every woman should be given the right to independently decide whether to give birth naturally or with the help of surgery.
Gunta Lazdan, head of the WHO reproductive and sexual health programme, recommends a number of measures to ensure safe childbirth:
- Medical personnel must provide favorable conditions for mother and child (support for home births with the provision of midwives)
- perform operative delivery only for medical reasons
- to promote and support breastfeeding
- improve the quality of services
Lazdan also added that without the necessary analytical materials and necessary data, it is impossible to understand the essence of the problems and make the process of the birth of a small person the safest and most joyful event in the life of every woman.
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