[Give birth in Italy is a "surgical" procedure.]

In Italy, the use of caesarean section has reached alarming levels: it involves more than one woman in three, as compared to one woman in five in Sweden and Finland. There is also considerable variability between different regions and different hospitals with clear heterogeneous access to appropriate interventions. In particular, although cesarean section rates are generally higher in the south, the heterogeneity between hospitals is much wider than the heterogeneity between regions, showing that the organizational and professional characteristics of individual providers strongly influence this phenomenon. In conclusion, in Italy structural peculiarities, organizational and professional supply of health services seem to influence the use of caesarean section more strongly than women's health conditions and pregnancy characteristics.