ABSTRACT:Objectives: To investigate how institutional factors, represented by the social profile of childbirth care, can relate to cesarean section rates. Methods: A cross-sectional study based on data from Sistema de Informações sobre Nascidos Vivos (SINASC) for the state of Santa Catarina collected information for each of the six municipalities with the largest number of births from the six macroregional areas. For those municipalities, all of the establishments that had obstetric facilities were considered. A total of 61.278 births took place over 61 selected maternity services. Cesarean prevalence ratios (PR), both crude and adjusted for confounders, were estimated for each one of the individual variables using robust Cox regression. Results: Cesarean births were almost as twice as high in private maternity facilities (89%) when compared to the public ones (45.1%). Giving birth in private hospitals increased by at least 50% the prevalence of caesarean section among primiparae (PR = 1.64), Caucasian (PR = 1.57), women with greater attendance to prenatal care (PR = 1.54), and women having daylight birth (PR = 1.5), when compared with those delivering inside the public sector. Conclusion: Differences in cesarean rates in favor of the private system, among women with better social conditions, amongst which it would be expected a lower obstetric risk, have pointed toward differences in obstetric/medical culture permeability and flexibility on medical judgment concerning clinical criteria for cesarean sections.
INTRODUCTIONAlthough cesarean section has recognized value when the health of mothers and newborns are at risk, its increasing use has been associated with increased maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality, especially in the absence of medical indications 1,2 . In recent decades, there has been a progressive increase in the number of caesarean sections in Brazil 3 and in almost all countries 4 . A cesarean rate of 58.9% in 2011 for the state of Santa Catarina 5 are more than three times above the accepted by the World Health Organization (WHO), who warns that lower perinatal mortality rates are consistent with a cesarean rate below 15% 6 . Different studies have indicated social inequalities concerning cesarean section in Brazil with higher prevalence among women who are assisted in the private sector, among those with higher educational levels, with white skin color 7,8 , and in regions with better access to health services [7][8][9][10][11] . High cesarean section rates and the social inequality indicate the paradox that women with low socioeconomic status and, consequently, increased risk of complications in childbirth, have less access to cesarean section than those exposed to lower risks and with higher income 2 .In a study conducted in São Paulo, approximately 43.0% of pregnant women of middle class who were cared for in a private clinic said they preferred the cesarean section because they were strongly influenced by the occurrence of a previous cesarean section. In contrast, women with previ...