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Evidence LibraryCesarean deliveryThe basics
Evidence Library · The basics

There is no single correct cesarean rate

The old "10 to 15 percent" target was abandoned.

For thirty years, a target of 10% to 15% was widely quoted. In 2015 the World Health Organization formally moved away from a fixed target. Its statement says that as cesarean rates rise toward 10% in a population, maternal and newborn deaths fall, but above 10% there is no evidence that death rates improve further.

WHO now recommends focusing on giving a cesarean to every woman who needs one, rather than hitting a number, and recommends classifying births into ten standard groups so hospitals can compare like with like.

What this means for you: a low hospital rate is not automatically good and a high one is not automatically bad. What matters is whether the operations being done are the ones that were needed.

Where this comes from:
275. World Health Organization. WHO statement on caesarean section rates. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2015. WHO/RHR/15.02.

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