Abstract
At Huddinge University Hospital 539 Caesarean Sections (C. S.) were made among 8415 deliveries from October 1972 to June 1976, corresponding to an over all C. S. rate of 6.4%. Over these years the rate has increased from 3.5% in 1972 to 9.7% in 1976. The main increase was due to a higher incidence of abdominal deliveries in cases of imminent fetal asphyxia. The maternal complication rate and the neonatal morbidity rate were both 6.5 times higher and the neonatal mortality rate was 4.1 times higher in emergency than in elective surgery. There was neither any mortality nor any morbidity in infants delivered by elective C. S. from healthy mothers at term.