C-section rate rises, despite lower overall birth rate: report
TORONTO — A higher proportion of Canadian women are giving birth by caesarean section, even while the overall rate of in-hospital births across the country is declining, says a report released Thursday.
The report from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) shows there were more than 103,000 C-sections in 2016-2017, making them the most commonly performed in-patient surgical procedure, followed by knee- and hip-replacement operations.
So what’s behind the rise in C-section rates, given that there’s been a push over the years to pare back the number of these procedures whenever possible?
“We don’t know for certain, there are a number of factors that can contribute to the increasing rates, one being that the average age of mothers giving birth is going up,” said Greg Webster, CIHI’s director of acute and ambulatory care information services.