One in five babies born by Caesarean in Ireland

ESRI report: One in five babies are born by Caesarean section in Ireland, according to the latest figures on births released today.

This figure (21 per cent) from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) report on perinatal statistics for 2000 represents an 81.5 per cent increase in the number of babies born by Caesarean section since 1991.

Commenting on the increase, Dr Declan Keane, master of the National Maternity Hospital, Holles Street, Dublin, said: "I think the figures are too high and are a sad indictment on current obstetric practice. I also suspect if you were to look at Caesarean section figures for 2003 for all Irish hospitals - public and private - the rates would be higher.

"There are a multiplicity of factors why there is such a high rate of Caesarean sections including increasing rates of Caesarean sections due to the medico legal climate and the fear of being sued. Also, the Caesarean section rate is likely to be higher in units which don't have equipment to carry out foetal blood sampling on babies in labour. Normal results in such tests allow us to let labour progress."

Maternal choice is another factor in the increasing rates of births by Caesarean section internationally, according to Dr Keane.

This is in spite of the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendation that Caesarean section should account for no more than 15 per cent of births.

The ESRI report, which gives details of pregnancy outcomes and age and status of mothers, also found that just over 30 per cent of all women giving birth in 2000 were single mothers.

This figure represents an increase of more than 90 per cent in 10 years. However, such statistics define single mothers as those who were never married and can therefore include many mothers who choose to live with their partners outside of marriage.

Overall, the birth rate in 2000 was 14.5 babies per 1,000 population which represented a decrease of 3.3 per cent since 1991. However, closer analysis of the figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) point to a drop in births from 1991 to 1995 with a steady increase from 1996 onwards.

More recent figures from the CSO also show an increase in the birth rate from 2000 to the first quarter of 2004, confirming reports of a mini baby boom in the early years of this new century.

The ESRI report also found an overall decline of 11.1 per cent in the mortality rate for babies throughout the 1990s.

In the 1991 to 2000 period, the rate of early neonatal death (defined as death within seven days of birth) fell by 23.8 per cent and the stillbirth rate fell by 1.8 per cent.

The average age of mothers giving birth in 2000 was 30.