The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that the cesarean section rate does not exceed 10-15% and is performed only in necessary cases according to medical criteria. However, according to data from the Ministry of Health, in recent years the rate of caesarean section in Spain has increased to 25%.
These figures convert to our country in one of those with the highest caesarean section rate in the European Union, surpassed, among others, by Italy with 35%. In Latin America, countries such as Brazil or the Dominican Republic multiply by six, the rate recommended by WHO.
Valencian Community, the autonomous community with the highest rate of caesarean sections
The percentages of caesarean sections according to autonomous communities, have varied slightly in recent years, and Extremadura, which in 2011 led the ranking of the communities with the highest caesarean section, has been displaced according to more recent data (2014) by the Ministry of Health Valencian Community with 29.50%.
But despite not leading the ranking, Extremadura has increasing its cesarean section rate and it has gone from 27.4% in 2011 to 28.69% in 2014. Catalonia with 27.23% becomes the third autonomous community with the highest percentage of caesarean sections.
If we look at the data of caesarean sections published by the organization El Parto es Nuestro in 2015, the figures vary slightly in Catalonia, which would be practically tied with Ceuta and Melilla with an index of 28.6%; more than one point higher than the previous year's data published by Health.
País Vasco, the autonomous community with the lowest number of caesarean sections
On the opposite side would be the Basque Country, with 16.3%, Navarra with 18.23% and Asturias with 20.46%.
The Basque Country continues to be the autonomous community with the lowest rate of caesarean sections, a fact that has hardly changed in the last ten years. In addition, according to the Diario Vasco, it is the Only community whose rate of vaginal births in public health is greater than 85%.
According to the National Statistics Institute, in 2014 there were 427,595 births, of which 116,586 ended in caesarean section. According to WHO, the acceptable number of C-sections should have been between 43,000-64,000. But, unfortunately, we stayed far away.
The cesarean section rate in other countries
According to the newspaper El País, Spain, with 25% would be among the countries of the European Union with the highest annual caesarean section rate, below Italy (35%) and far from Finland, where the rate is 15%.
More or less at the same level of figures as our country, according to data published by the BBC, countries such as United States, China or United Kingdom.
Some countries in Latin America and the Caribbean hold the highest caesarean section rate in the world, headed by Dominican Republic with 60.6% and Brazil with 56%, followed closely by Mexico, Argentina, Puerto Rico and Cuba.
Other countries such as Egypt, with 52% or Turkey with 47.5%, continue with the high trend set by some Latin American countries.
But in Latin America there are also countries that set an example and follow the recommendations of WHO, such as Guatemala, Honduras, Peru and Bolivia.The countries of the world with the lowest rate of caesarean sections (around 2%) are some Africans such as Niger, Chad, Ethiopia or Burkina Faso, although this is due, logically to the little, or null, medical care that some have regions
WHO recommendations
WHO considers that the ideal cesarean section should range between 10% and 15%, but warns that this practice is becoming more frequent in both developed and developing countries.
When caesarean section is medically justified, it is known to save lives of both mother and baby. But Unjustified C-sections involve an unnecessary risk to the health of both, in the short and long term, in addition to being able to affect future pregnancies.
In the BBC article cited above, the reasons that lead some countries to have such a high cesarean section rate. In Brazil, for example, women decide to undergo a C-section to have their tubes tied in the same intervention and in other Latin American countries they do so purely aesthetic issues.
In others, as in China, caesarean sections are performed by attending superstitions that predict good luck for the child born on a certain date.
Although, as we have seen, there are really alarming figures, it seems that both governments and health professionals are becoming aware of the risks that "unnecessary caesarean sections" may entail. Hopefully measures will be taken soon to help drastically reduce these terrible percentages.Vías El Parto is Ours, BBC, El País, INE, Ministry of Health, WHO, Diario Vasco
In Babies and More Euskadi: that strange autonomous community where 85% of its strange women give birth vaginally, Map with the percentage of caesarean sections in Spain, according to autonomous communities, The number of caesarean sections practiced in Spain increases almost 10% in ten years
