Why Caesarean section deliveries are rising at an alarming rate in India

Pregnancy-related complications are one of many reasons why C-sections are burgeoning in India

In the sultry summers of northern India, a Haryanvi farming family was trying to take their 22-year-old daughter-in-law to the city hospital after the community health centre in the district town near their village said it could not help. The woman had developed a complication known as preeclampsia, a high blood pressure disorder that usually occurs after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

“By the time she reached us in Gurgaon, her condition had worsened. The baby died, and the mother was in the intensive care unit,” says the doctor who attended to her.

If treated on time, the baby would have