Abstract

Objective: To identify the causes and factors associated with unnecessary cesarean section (CS) and to facilitate actions to prevent unnecessary CS.
Methods: This cross-sectional retrospective study was conducted at Madinah Maternity and Children Hospital in Madinah from December 1, 2019 to November 30, 2020. The study was conducted on women who delivered during the study period by collecting their medical data.
Results: The study included 3,034 participants; the most common age group was those aged 31-35 years, representing 28.6% among all participants. Further, 25.6% of participants had a normal body mass index (BMI), and 90% were Saudi individuals. There were 69.8% emergent cases for CS, and 91.1% performed lower segment CS. The emergence of CS was associated with younger age: ≤25 years (p-value = 0.0001), age of 26-30 years (p-value = 0.004), and normal and overweight individuals (p-values = 0.001, 0.025, respectively). Also, Saudi individuals tended to perform emergent CS compared to non-Saudi (p-value = 0.006). Conclusion: Unnecessary CS was associated with the personal characteristics of females and was not associated with medical reasons.

Key words: Cesarean, unnecessary, reasons, prevention, Saudi Arabia