Caesarean section: a national study.

Although the use of caesarean section (CS) continues to be debated, the demographic characteristics of the affected population have received little attention. This paper shows that in New Zealand during 1983-84, a CS was performed on 9.6% of delivered women between the ages of 15-44. The rate increased with maternal age (p less than 0.01), and was highest for 'single' women (11.3/100) and Pacific Island women aged 35-44 (21/100). There was a significantly (p less than 0.05) high rate in the Auckland and South Otago hospital board districts, but a low rate (p less than 0.05) in the Ashburton, Nelson, Canterbury, Southland, Taumaranui, Waiapu, Wairarapa, Wanganui, and Wellington board districts. The rate was also high (p less than 0.01) in the principal teaching hospitals. Long labour (15.2%), malposition and malpresentation of the fetus (14.7%) were the leading reasons for performing a CS. The paucity of national data on a number of other highly relevant birth and maternal factors hinders the further definition of the epidemiological patterns of CS in New Zealand.