Health department to curb C-section deliveries in Hyderabad city

Hyderabad: In order to curb the number of C-section births in the city, the health department will conduct an audit of private hospitals this month.

As of April, 61 per cent of births in Hyderabad district are by C-section. While the figure is 40-45 per cent in government hospitals, it is at 71 per cent in private ones.

Officials will collect data on the percentage of such deliveries and seek an explanation from hospitals where the numbers are high. The drive comes in the wake of health minister T. Harish Rao’s plea to bring down the percentage of C-section births as Telangana has one of the highest percentages in this category.

Officials will also check if personnel at hospitals with a high count of caesareans have any valid reasons for the same. A senior official from the health department said some hospitals may have found that more naturally born babies require special care nurseries (SCNs) or are prone to other complications. “In that case, we need to investigate the genuineness,” he said.

“Some people are misled  by hospitals that natural births lead to complications for the child, while some do not want to suffer the physical pain of a natural birth,” the official said. Another reason is to ensure that the baby is born on a particular day, as advised by astrologers. “In such instances, they resort to C-sections so that the baby is born on that specific day,” said a source.

Health officials opine that whatever measures they take to increase natural births, the results are likely to be seen only after six months. One of the proposed measures is to counsel pregnant women on why natural births are healthier options for the mother and the baby.