[The effect of cesarean section deliveries on female sterilization in Puerto Rico]

For the last decades Puerto Rico has had the highest rate of female sterilization of the world. However, it was to be expected that the increasing trend will slow down with the appearance of new and effective birth control methods and the increasing educational level of the population. The data obtained from an island-wide sample survey undertaken in 1982 demonstrated that this was not the case and that the rate of female sterilization continued to increase. The authors hypothesis was that this unexpected situation was a result of the remarkable increase observed in cesarean childbirth in the Island. Thus, the main objective of this study was to examine the relationship between cesarean childbirth and female sterilization. Utilizing the 1982 sample survey data the authors demonstrated that surgical deliveries had increased so rapidly during the last decades that Puerto Rico seems to be the leading country of the world, confirming the findings of a 1980 study. These data also showed that there was a very strong association between cesarean childbirth and female sterilization. A partial correlation analysis tend to demonstrate that surgical delivery in Puerto Rico, is at present, a stronger determinant of female sterilization than fertility.