Pregnancy

Natural birth or caesarean section, the situation in Italy, hospital by hospital

Are you deciding which hospital to give birth in and want to know how many births have taken place in that hospital in a year? And how many caesarean sections are performed and natural births after a caesarean section (VBAC)?

These are very useful numbers that can help you understand the degree of reliability of a birth point.

Agenas, the health agency of the Italian regions, has put online the 2016 edition of the Pne, the national results programme. Through this tool it is not possible to have statistical data on a national scale, but it is possible to trace the quality of the healthcare activity of the single hospital of interest, and this for any type of intervention

Here we will obviously take care of reporting the data regarding the situation in Italy in terms of births.

Why is it important to know the number of deliveries in a healthcare facility?

According to the agency, maternity wards with a low number of deliveries may not guarantee the safety of the woman and the child.

Why is it important to evaluate the number of caesarean sections that have occurred in a given hospital?

Agenas points out that in women with low-risk pregnancies and without previous cesarean sections, vaginal delivery is safer than cesarean section for both the woman and the baby. If the doctor deems it more appropriate to resort to a cesarean section, he must
provide clear information on the risks and benefits with respect to vaginal birth.

Why is it important to know the number of vaginal deliveries after cesarean (VBAC) in a hospital?

After the first cesarean section there is no scientific evidence to perform a second one if the woman or the baby are well.

How many cesarean deliveries took place in 2015 in Italy?

The answer is simple, too many.

If we look at this graphic taken from the Pne website, we see that Italy is the European country with the highest number of cesarean deliveries.

Like Hungary and Poland

Of this percentage, 10% is represented by caesarean sections after a previous caesarean delivery, while 25.7% concerns primary caesarean sections, i.e. occurred during the first pregnancy.

The total number has decreased slightly in recent years but we can do better by acting in two ways:

  • decreasing the number of women who have never had a caesarean before (primary caesarean)
  • promoting vaginal delivery ( VBAC ) even in women with a low-risk pregnancy, who have already had a cesarean section

The situation in every hospital in Italy

Agenas provides a further tool, namely the one that allows you to go and see the births that have taken place in the hospital of interest.

For example, in my case the hospital closest to me is the Osp. Alto Vicentino Santorso (VI) in Veneto.

Choosing this hospital I can see that the maternity point respects the standard of at least 500 deliveries per year, that the number of primary caesarean deliveries is much lower than the Italian average and that VBACs are performed in almost half of the women with a previous caesarean delivery compared 8% of the national average.

Dr Kathryn Barlow

Kathryn Barlow is an OB/GYN doctor, which is the medical specialty that deals with the care of women's reproductive health, including pregnancy and childbirth.

Obstetricians provide care to women during pregnancy, labor, and delivery, while gynecologists focus on the health of the female reproductive system, including the ovaries, uterus, vagina, and breasts. OB/GYN doctors are trained to provide medical and surgical care for a wide range of conditions related to women's reproductive health.

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