Aim: The authors investigated the effect of rising cesarean rates on maternal and perinatal mortality and in neonatal morbidity in Hungary.
Methods: The authors searched the validated Hungarian National Health database of neonatal discharge records for ICD-10 codes: P0590 (growth restriction); P2010 (fetal hypoxia in labor); P2090 (intrauterine hypoxia); P2200 (respiratory distress syndrome); P2390 (congenital pneumonia); P2400 (meconium aspiration); P2850 (respiratory insufficiency); P3990 (neonatal infection); P9130 (cerebral irritability) and P9141 (cerebral depression) collected between 2006 and 2015. County-specific number of deliveries, perinatal deaths, and data on the route of delivery from the national database were also collected. Controlling for regional disparities with Human Development Index was also performed. Logistic regression analysis was performed to identify determinants of early neonatal mortality.
Results: While cesarean section-rate rose from 28.6% to 38.2% perinatal mortality stayed within the range between 7.8‰ and 6.1‰. Early (0-6 days) neonatal mortality (NMR) of the whole country in 2006 was 2.8‰ and showed a significant decrease over the years to reach 1.7‰ in 2015. The rate of most neonatal morbidities decreased significantly. Controlled regression analysis proved that cesarean rates negatively influenced neonatal mortality rates.
Conclusion: The rise of the cesarean section rate in Hungary between 2006 and 2015 was associated with a detectable reduction of perinatal mortality and morbidity; however, the proportion of improvement in neonatal morbidity is far less than the increment in cesarean rate.
Keywords: cesarean rate; maternal mortality; perinatal mortality.
© 2020 Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology.