Trends in caesarean sections at Tygerberg Hospital, South Africa: a 20 year experience.

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the caesarean section (CS) rate and the individual components thereof at Tygerberg Hospital; the trend and its relationship to the perinatal mortality rate.

DESIGN

A retrospective study, using data from 1975 to 1994.

SETTINGS

Tygerberg Academic Hospital (TBH) is the referral hospital for regional Midwife Obstetric Units (MOU) as well as the tertiary referral hospital for secondary hospitals in the former Cape Province, excluding the Eastern Cape. In the last year of the study there were 7,035 deliveries in TBH, 4,040 deliveries in the MOU and 28,596 in the secondary hospitals.

SUBJECTS

174,713 deliveries and 22,773 CS from 1975 to 1994.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE

The individual components of the CS rate.

RESULTS

The CS rate stayed constant at about 13%. The perinatal mortality rate declined from 34.7/1000 to 18.4/1000.

CONCLUSION

A low, constant CS rate can be maintained without compromising the perinatal mortality rate.