Contrary to popular belief that the number of caesarean deliveries (c-sec) are going up in India, government data reveals that normal way is still preferred as there are less number of women who had gone under the surgical knife for giving birth.
According to the data available with the Union health ministry, as compared to 98,735 babies reported to have been delivered through caesarean section at government institutions in 2012-2013, the babies born through normal delivery were way high for the same period. In 2012-2013 so far 13,51,472 babies have been born through normal delivery.
The trend has been seen in earlier years too. Significantly, in 2011-2012, 13,34,734 babies were born through normal deliveries and 72,366 through c-section in the same period.
Doctors say the reason for this is that only complicated and high risk deliveries are referred for c-sec in government hospitals. As per the data, of the total 25,442 deliveries in 2012 at the Safdarjung Hospital, only 4,072 were conducted through c-sec and the rest 21,370 were normal deliveries. In AIIMS too, out of the total 2,361 deliveries, 969 were caesarean deliveries and the rest 1,392 were normal deliveries.
Out of the 743 deliveries at RML Hospital in 2011, 317 were caesarean and 426 were normal deliveries. Among the government hospitals in Delhi, major chunk of deliveries take place at Safdarjung. Data from the hospital from 2008 onwards shows that the number of c-sec deliveries are far less than normal deliveries.
In 2008 out of the total 26,101 deliveries at Safdarjung, only 3,208 were caesarean. In LHMC too, out of the total 13,285 deliveries in 2009, only 2891 were caesarean sections.
The data is in stark opposite to the recent study conducted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) which said that nearly one in 10 women in India who gave birth between 2005 and 2010 had gone under the surgical knife.
The WHO statistics released in 2012 suggested that 9 per cent of all births in India were by Caesarean section. The figures, according to the International health agency had gone up by 5 per cent.
Doctors of government hospital say that the trend is followed in private hospitals where some doctors needlessly expose women to surgical risks for their economic gains. In fact, the WHO study which reviewed 110,000 births from nine countries in Asia including India in 2010 also revealed that more than 60 per cent of the hospitals that were reviewed during the study did it not because it was required but due to financial gains.
In India, a caesarean delivery costs an average of `30,000-`35,000 much more than a normal delivery.