Publication:

Characteristics of deliveries at a tertiary care hospital in Turkey: results from a retrospective analysis (2012-2016)

Background Although the choice of a particular method of birth delivery by the pregnant woman is a modern, complex and controversial subject all over the world, the rate of caesarean delivery has risen to nearly 50% in western countries. Apart from medical reasons, several non-medical factors are also involved in this choice, and they comprise the socioeconomic conditions, ethical/legal concerns and psychological and cultural characteristics of the patients and doctors. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the demographic and clinical characteristics of pregnant women who gave birth in a tertiary care hospital between October 2012 and June 2016.

Methods The patients’ charts of pregnant women who presented to the Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University hospital between October 2012 and June 2016 and who gave birth through either vaginal or caesarean delivery were retrospectively analysed. The patients’ age, delivery type, weeks of pregnancy at delivery, number of pregnancies and caesarean indications were recorded.

Results In this study, we retrospectively analysed 2012 pregnant women. The mean age of the pregnant women was 28.9 ±5.4 years. The mean gravida and parity of pregnant women were 1.9±1.0 and 1.5±0.7, respectively. Regardless of the delivery type, the mean pregnancy weeks were found to be 38.6±1.9 weeks. The mean pregnancy weeks of patients undergoing caesarean delivery were 38.4±1.8 weeks. The primary caesarean rates were 52.81%. The most common caesarean delivery indications were foetal distress, cephalopelvic disproportion and presentation anomalies.

Conclusions The steady increase in caesarean delivery rates has become a major cause of concern worldwide. The reasons for this phenomenon are mostly related to advanced age; foetal distress, especially one that is detected in continuous foetal monitoring; intrauterine growth retardation; presentation anomalies and multiple gestation. To avoid unnecessary caesarean births, mothers, especially nulliparous mothers, should be persuaded to undergo vaginal delivery.