China's record C-section rate due to greed, fear

• Source: Global Times
• [13:21 May 11 2010]
• Comments

Doctors who may be motivated by financial gain are under the spotlight, following the World Health Organization's announcement in February that 46 percent of the babies born in China between October 2007 and May 2008 were delivered by Caesarean section. The rate is three times higher than WHO's alarm level of 15 percent, and it also means that the country now has the world's highest rate of C-section deliveries.

According to a doctor from Henan Province, the cost of a natural delivery is 500 yuan ($73), but the fee for a C-section is more than 1,000 yuan ($146).

Doctors around the world normally recommend a C-section when a natural delivery may put the baby or mother at risk, but many women in China opt for the Caesarean because a doctor has persuaded them that a C-section is safer and easier.

Statistics from the Beijing Public Health Information Center in 2006 show that, from the 1950s to the 1970s, China's C-section rate was about 5 percent but, in the 1990s, the number surged to 40 percent to 60 percent.

In addition, a fear of litigation may also explain the country's C-section rate.

As a natural delivery is more time-consuming and risky, the likelihood of a medical dispute is higher.

A director of a maternal and child health hospital in Shandong Province, surnamed Zhao, said childbirth is a complex and risky process and both hospital and patients are unwilling to take risks.

This means that many doctors prefer performing a Caesarean in order to lower the possibility of a medical dispute.