Spain is the European country where more caesarean sections are performed. The average is 20% of C-sections and Andalusia is the region where the increase in practice is most worrying. In fact, Malaga is the Spanish city that leads the way in the number of caesarean sections performed.
According to data, data offered at the II Suavinex Professional Conference, around 21.49% of Andalusian pregnant women face a caesarean section when it comes to having their children in public health, and nothing less than between 40 and 50% do so in private health, when the recommendation of the WHO is that the percentage does not exceed 10% since more than that figure, considers it bad praxis.
Malaga (with 26.2%) and Cádiz (25.8%) are the provinces that are leading, followed by Granada (19.93%), Córdoba (19.40%), Seville (18.62% ) and Jaén (17.98%), which despite touching 18% is one of the provinces with the lowest caesarean section. We are missing the general data of Huelva and Almeria.
As a counterpart, one of the hospitals with the lowest percentage of caesarean sections in Spain is just in Andalusia, the hospital of La Inmaculada in Huércal-Overa in Almería with a 14% incidence.
It is incomprehensible that in the same community there may be such a difference between one province and another. What are the factors that affect? Is it a medical decision or are mothers increasingly influencing the choice of a cesarean delivery? If so, why do they prefer it, for comfort, for fear of suffering?
The figures show that it is clear that caesarean sections are not practiced as a last resort only when it is strictly necessary to save the baby's life from some kind of setback or complication. The problem is that the exception is becoming a rule.
We have seen that Andalusian hospitals have begun to join natural childbirth with the objective of reducing birth interventions. For this they promote some changes such as the possibility of choosing different positions to give birth, new dilation rooms, choosing whether to give birth or not with epidural, etc.
It is necessary that this change of mentality spread rapidly through the Andalusian centers to ensure that the practice of caesarean section is reduced. We hope to have more encouraging figures soon.
