Introduction
The need to rationalise and optimise the use of caesarean sections is an international public health challenge. To this end, the WHO recommends the use of the Robson classification, which allows comparison of caesarean section rates according to the maternal-fetal profile. The aim of this study is to evaluate the rate of caesarean section in the Hospital Universitario Materno-Infantil La Paz in Madrid between 2010 and 2018 using the Robson classification.
Material and methods
The population analysed corresponds to data from the 41,037 deliveries registered in the Obstetrics programme of the Hospital Universitario Materno-Infantil La Paz of Madrid from 2010 to 2018. Using SPSS software, the temporal change in (a) the percentage of deliveries (vaginal and caesarean) with respect to total births, (b) the caesarean rate with respect to vaginal deliveries and (c) the relative contribution to the overall caesarean rate is evaluated.
Results
The highest partial contributions to the overall caesarean section rate were made by nulliparous women with induced labour, previous caesarean section, nulliparous women with spontaneous labour and multiple gestations. The group of nulliparous with induced labour was the only one with a significant increase in its contribution to the overall caesarean section rate (30.4% in 2018).
Conclusions
The results of this work indicate that the challenge in public health is to further assess the relationship between induction of labour and risk of intrapartum caesarean section, particularly in nulliparous women, the group with the highest and significantly increasing relative caesarean section rate.