Why have the numbers of cesareans increased globally? The factors that affect women’s decisions about cesarean delivery in Turkey

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this research is to investigate the factors that prevent women choosing vaginal delivery, and to identify the reasons underlying the increasing rate of cesarean births.

Materials and methods: The study was carried out as descriptive cross-sectional research. The sample group consists of 591 women who gave birth via cesarean delivery at a state hospital. Research data was collected using a questionnaire and through face-to-face interviews by researchers. The data was presented as frequency, mean, and analyzed chi-square test, binary logistic regression.

Results: The average age of the participating women was 26.49 ± 0.2, the majority were primary-secondary school graduates (70.6%) and housewives (97.0%). About 87.3% of the participants opted for cesarean delivery following medical advice due to medical reasons, and others intentionally chose this method for specific reasons including fear of vaginal delivery, tubal ligation, or a desire to plan a specific birthdate. The findings of the logistic regression model indicate that the increase in number of prenatal care appointments and the time of deciding on the type of delivery approaches the time of delivery increased the medical advice-based cesarean delivery rate (respectively; OR: 1.390, p = .001; OR: 1.850, p = .000), and that having had a previous delivery with the aid of a midwife reduced the likelihood of medical advice-based cesarean delivery (0.233, p = .001). These correlations were also found to be significant in the chi-square test (p < .05).

Conclusions: The attitudes of health professionals, women’s demands and the time allowed for making decisions about cesarean delivery have an effect on preferences regarding cesareans.

Keywords:

• Cesarean section
• midwifery
• preferences
• prenatal care

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.