Abstract
ObjectiveTo evaluate how the country of origin affects the probability of being delivered by cesarean section when giving birth at public Portuguese hospitals.Study DesignWomen delivered of a singleton birth (n = 8228), recruited from five public level III maternities (April 2005–August 2006) during the procedure of assembling a birth cohort, were classified according to the country of origin and her migration status as Portuguese (n = 7908), non-Portuguese European (n = 84), African (n = 77) and Brazilian (n = 159). A Poisson model was used to evaluate the association between country of birth and cesarean section that was measured by adjusted prevalence ratio (PR) and respective 95% confidence intervals (95%CI).ResultsThe cesarean section rate varied from 32.1% in non-Portuguese European to 48.4% in Brazilian women (p = 0.008). After adjustment for potential confounders and compared to Portuguese women as a reference, Brazilian women presented significantly higher prevalence of cesarean section (PR = 1.26; 95%CI: 1.08–1.47). The effect was more evident among multiparous women (PR = 1.39; 95%CI: 1.12–1.73) and it was observed when cesarean section was performed either before labor (PR = 1.43; 95%CI: 0.99–2.06) or during labor (PR = 1.30; 95%CI: 1.07–1.58).ConclusionsThe rate of cesarean section was significantly higher among Brazilian women and it was independent of the presence of any known risk factors or usual clinical indications, suggesting that cultural background influences the mode of delivery overcoming the expected standard of care and outcomes in public health services.
Highlights
European high-income countries are increasingly multi-ethnic societies where a large percentage of childbearing women were born abroad.[1,2,3,4,5,6] Their outcomes became key priorities for many governments as disparities in perinatal outcomes between foreignborn and native population have been reported, [7,8,9,10,11,12] suggesting inequities in access to and quality of health care
The dramatic increase in cesarean rate over the last decades [13] has been a matter of public health concern due the increased risk of severe morbidity for mother [14,15,16,17] and child [17,18,19] associated with surgical delivery, in addition to the increased costs demanded by this mode of delivery.[20]
In order to revert the upward trends in surgical delivery, it seems important to identify what groups of women undergo cesarean section and to investigate the underlying reasons
Summary
European high-income countries are increasingly multi-ethnic societies where a large percentage of childbearing women were born abroad.[1,2,3,4,5,6] Their outcomes became key priorities for many governments as disparities in perinatal outcomes between foreignborn and native population have been reported, [7,8,9,10,11,12] suggesting inequities in access to and quality of health care. The dramatic increase in cesarean rate over the last decades [13] has been a matter of public health concern due the increased risk of severe morbidity for mother [14,15,16,17] and child [17,18,19] associated with surgical delivery, in addition to the increased costs demanded by this mode of delivery.[20] In order to revert the upward trends in surgical delivery, it seems important to identify what groups of women undergo cesarean section and to investigate the underlying reasons
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