In Austria, almost every third baby was born by caesarean section in the previous year. This number has more than doubled in the past 25 years, Tobias Thomas, Austria’s director-general of statistics, said Thursday. Cesarean section was planned in 16.2 percent of deliveries.
Another 15.5 percent made the decision during birth. According to Thomas, Austria is at the top of the midfield in an EU comparison. The proportion of caesarean sections is relatively low in Northern European countries, but in Cyprus more than half of children were born this way.
The position of the child plays an important role in a caesarean section. In most cases (95.4 percent and 98.5 percent, respectively) a cesarean section is performed in the pelvic or transverse position. It is about half (52.6 percent) if the skull is in an irregular position. Cesarean section is also used predominantly (80.3 percent) for multiple births.
Especially in older mothers
In addition, the risk increases with the age of the mother. Women aged 35 or older at birth were 1.6 times more likely to have a caesarean section than women under 25. Mothers were on average 31.5 years old when they gave birth last year – that’s 4.2 years more than 30 years ago – and only slightly younger when they first gave birth at 30.3.
Most babies (98.1 percent) were born in a hospital in the past year, only a few were home births, were born in a maternity clinic, an obstetrician’s office or on their way to hospital. The majority were born at term, ie between the 37th and 42nd week of pregnancy. 6.9 percent of the newborns were premature, 0.3 too late. Premature babies and multiple births often have a low weight.
Source: Krone
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