The Global Numbers and Costs of Additionally Needed and Unnecessary Caesarean Sections Performed per Year: Overuse as a Barrier to Universal Coverage

Overview

Cesarean section (CS) was  introduced in clinical  practice as a life saving  procedure both for  the mother  and the baby. As other procedures of some  complexity,  its use follows the health care inequity  pattern of the world: underuse in  low income settings, and adequate or even unnecessary  use in middle and high income settings. 

This report is part of a series, The World Health Report 2010 Background Papers, which were written to inform the process of developing the key messages of the World Health Report 2010: Health systems financing: The path to universal coverage.