New figures recently published by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists indicate that cases of rising obesity and older mothers are behind thousands of extra cases of Caesarean births.
Maternity figures given by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists show the numbers of both elected and emergency Caesarean sections have gone up despite a fall in the overall number of births.
While different reports published in the recent past also show an alarming rise in C-section delivery, experts point out that different factors contribute for its rise in India.
Dr Rishma Dhillon Pai, President, Federation of Obstetrics and Gynaecological Societies of India (FOGSI), said, “Rising obesity and older mothers are one of the most common problems in India, but they are not the only one. There are many other factors like these days women themselves are demanding a C-Section delivery. Also, these days, couples prefer just one or two children and in that case they do not want to take any risks. Parents are not ready to tolerate even any problem during the delivery.”
Dr Ramesh Bhosale, Gynaecologist from Sassoon College, said, “Awareness is increasing in India. Age of marriage is also going up and obesity is also rising. With the rising obesity, the flexibility of the birth passage decreases and then we undertake C Section delivery. Also with hypertension, diabetes and growth retardation, complexities during pregnancy are also rising. Also with the latest technologies, more and more problems in foetus are getting detected which then is leading to C Section deliveries.”
The statistics given by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists says that there were 73,551 elective or planned C-sections on the NHS in 2015-16, which were about 6,750 more than in 2011-12.
There was also a small rise in the number of emergency Caesarean births – up from 97,054 in 2011-12 to 99,403 in 2015-16.