Vietnam urged to stop rising trend of caesarean section deliveries

 

 HCM City (VNA) - The Vietnamese Government should intervene to reduce the rate of caesarean section deliveries, which has been rising in the country, an International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) official has said.

Professor Gerard H.A.Visser, chairman of FIGO’s Committee for Safe Motherhood and Newborn Health, said world-wide there has been an explosion in caesarean deliveries, ranging from 50 percent in south-eastern Europe to 60 percent in some Latin American countries.

In Vietnam, the rate was 33 percent in 2008, he told an annual Vietnam-France-Asia-Pacific Conference that took place recently in Ho Chi Minh City.

According to the Ministry of Health, the rate was only 12.4 percent in 2003.

Visser said the incidence of C-section has nothing to do with evidence-based medicine.

The increase in C-sections raises direct maternal morbidity, complications in subsequent pregnancies, neonatal morbidity due to early delivery, and auto-immune and metabolic disease in the offspring, he said.

It is time to consider the risks of C-sections for long-term child health, he said.

Fees for caesarean deliveries should be reduced for both the doctor and hospital, he said. Besides, caesarean fees should be used to increase vaginal delivery fees for doctors, better preparation for labour and delivery, skills training for doctors and upgrading labour wards at hospitals, he said.

Nguyen Duc Vinh, head of the Ministry of Health’s maternal and child health department, said Visser’s recommendations are important for policy makers like him.

The two-day conference also highlighted good nutrition in the 1,000 days between a woman’s pregnancy and her child’s second birthday.

Assoc Prof Dr Nguyen Anh Tuan of the HCM City University of Medicine and Pharmacy said the 1,000 days are a unique period of opportunity to ensure children’s optimum health, growth and neurodevelopment.

Good nutrition during this period helps prevent non-communicable diseases such as obesity and diabetes in future, he said.

Other health experts spoke about the importance of vaccines during pregnancy and children’s first years.

The conference was held by Tu Du Hospital together with the French National College of Gynecologists and Obstetricians, FIGO and the Federation of Asia and Oceania’s Perinatal Societies.

It was attended by hundreds of academics, doctors and experts from Vietnam and other countries like France, Italy, the US and others, who shared their scientific studies and provided an up-to-date overview of obstetrics and gynecology, assisted reproductive technology, and screening, diagnosis and treatment of gynecological cancers.-VNA