There were as many as nine lakh "preventable" unplanned Caesarean section (C-section) deliveries out of 70 lakh in private hospitals in India in one year, driven mainly by "financial incentives," says a study by Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad.
Such "medically unjustified" births not just cause "large out-of-pocket expenses" but also "delayed breastfeeding, lower birth-weight, respiratory morbidities" among other troubles for the newborn, it says.
The study is titled "Too much care? Private health care sector and surgical interventions during childbirth in India," and was carried out by IIM-A faculty member Ambrish Dongre and doctoral student Mitul Surana.
The study finds "a woman opting for private facility is 13.5-14 percentage points more likely to undergo an unplanned C-section (compared to public facilities)".
The figure is based on the fourth round of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS), carried out in 2015-16, which found that 40.9 per cent births in private facilities in India were through C-section as against 11.9 per cent in public facilities.
The study observes that "supplier-induced demand" for unplanned C-section births in private facilities is mainly driven by "financial incentives."
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