Skip to content
Research Article Open access CC BY 4.0

Is Caesarean Delivery Safe? Experience from a Low Resource Setting

Ngozi C. Orazulike, Justina O. Alegbeleye, Rosemary N. Ogu, Samuel A. Uzoigwe

Asian Journal of Medicine and Health · pp. 1–7 · Published 11 Mar 2017

10.9734/AJMAH/2017/32161

Abstract

Objective: In Nigeria, women abhor caesarean delivery because of perceived complications arising from it. We compared the maternal morbidity and mortality associated with caesarean and vaginal deliveries in Port Harcourt, Nigeria to ascertain the safety of caesarean delivery. Materials and Methods: This was a prospective study of 1000 consecutive caesarean deliveries at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Nigeria over a one-year period. The control group consisted of women matched for age and parity who had spontaneous vaginal delivery after the subject that had caesarean delivery. Information from the case notes was extracted onto a proforma completed by the doctor after delivery. Descriptive and comparative analysis of data generated was done using Epi Info Version 6.04d. Chi-squared test was used to evaluate differences in the morbidity and mortality rates between the two groups. Results: The caesarean delivery (CD) rate over the study period was 33.1%. Morbidity pattern was similar in both groups in terms of puerperal sepsis (1.1% from CD versus 1.3% from vaginal delivery [VD]) and post-partum haemorrhage (0.6% from CD versus 1.7% from VD). Six maternal deaths occurred among women who had CD, five of which were in those who had emergency CD while five maternal deaths occurred among women who had vaginal delivery. The difference was not statistically significant (p > 0.05). Conclusion: There was no significant difference in terms of morbidity and mortality between caesarean and vaginal delivery in our tertiary institution. Women in low resource countries should be counseled appropriately so that their aversion towards caesarean delivery will be minimized.  

Caesarean delivery vaginal delivery morbidity mortality

References (13)

  1. 1 Moving beyond essential interventions for reduction of maternal mortality (the WHO Multicountry Survey on Maternal and Newborn Health): a cross-sectional study [DOI]
  2. 2 Maternal and neonatal individual risks and benefits associated with caesarean delivery: multicentre prospective study [DOI]
  3. 3 Socioeconomic differentials in caesarean rates in developing countries: a retrospective analysis [DOI]
  4. 4 Trends in caesarean delivery by country and wealth quintile: cross-sectional surveys in southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa [DOI]
  5. 5 Maternal morbidity associated with cesarean delivery without labor compared with spontaneous onset of labor at term [DOI]
  6. 6 Pregnancy-related death and health care services [DOI]
  7. 7 Caesarean section in Malawi: prospective study of early maternal and perinatal mortality [DOI]
  8. 8 The burden of caesarean section refusal in a developing country setting [DOI]
  9. 9 Maternal morbidity and mortality associated with elective Caesarean delivery at a university hospital in Nigeria [DOI]
  10. 10 Maternal Request Cesarean Versus Planned Spontaneous Vaginal Delivery: Maternal Morbidity and Short Term Outcomes [DOI]
  11. 11 Elective caesarean section in a tertiary hospital in Sokoto, north western Nigeria [DOI]
  12. 12 Current status of obstetric anaesthesia: improving satisfaction and safety.
  13. 13 An Audit of Neonatal Respiratory Morbidity following Elective Caesarean Section at Term [DOI]

Cited by 0

No indexed citations yet.

Related research

Article metrics

Real usage data collected on this platform.

0

Page views

0

PDF downloads

0

Outbound clicks

0

Citations

Views by country

Approximate, from request IP at view time — not citizenship or institution. Countries with fewer than 5 views are grouped as "Other".

No views recorded yet.

Traffic sources

Referring site, by host.

No traffic recorded yet.

Views and downloads exclude known bots/crawlers. Citations combines this platform's own DOI-resolved index with each external source's own reported total — see Cited by above for individually listed citing works. Last refreshed 0 seconds ago.