Forty percent of babies at Letterkenny University Hospital (LUH) are now delivered by caesarean section, a new report has revealed.
The national rates of caesarean section per 100 live births increased from 28pc in 2012 to 36.6pc in 2021 – marking a 10-year high. Ireland now has the fifth-highest rate among the 38 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries across which the average is 28 C-sections per 100 births.
In 2021, the rate in St Luke’s Hospital Kilkenny was 43.7 per 100 births, while it stood at 42.3 per 100 births in Portiuncula Hospital in Co Galway. It was at over 40 per 100 births in Letterkenny Hospital and University Hospital Kerry.
The statistics are set out in the report of the National Healthcare Quality Reporting System for last year which tracks trends across the health service.
It pointed out: “There was some variation observed in the rates of caesarean section per 100 live births in 2021 in maternity hospitals in Ireland.
“It should be noted that the findings presented in this report are from a high-level analysis which does not take into account a number of factors that are known to impact on caesarean section rates, including age of the mother, underlying comorbidity, history of caesarean section, multiple births, or complex presentations and pregnancies.”
Read the full report on www.independent.ie
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