Staggering 70pc deliveries being performed by C section

ISLAMABAD: The health officials claimed that 70 percent of deliveries are being unnecessarily performed through surgical procedures by the gynaecologists in Pakistan as compared to 21 per cent of cesarean births around the world.

Meanwhile, the Sehat Sahulat Programme equalised the rates of both types of deliveries causing a serious drop in C-section operations in private hospitals. “Over 70 per cent of the babies in Pakistan were being delivered through cesarean section but when the team of ‘Sehat Sahulat Programme’ negotiated with the hospitals and offered them the same rates for normal deliveries and the surgical procedure, the C-section births dropped to 60 per cent, which showed that over 10 per cent babies were being delivered unnecessarily through surgical procedure,” Muhammad Arshad, Chief Executive Officer Sehat Sahulat Programme told at a seminar on Friday.

The CEO maintained that a few months back at the request of the Punjab health minister, the charges for cesarean section for private hospitals associated with the Sehat Sahulat Programme were increased but after the increase, the incidence of C-section jumped immediately to 83 per cent forced to bring the rates down and to make them equal to the normal deliveries to prevent unnecessary cesarean sections of the pregnant women. “At the moment, over 1,082 hospitals are associated with the Sehat Sahulat Programme, of which 70 per cent are private health facilities, while the rest are public sector hospitals.”