Proposing a Hybrid Model Based on Robson's Classification for Better Impact on Trends of Cesarean Deliveries

To construct a hybrid model classification for cesarean section (CS) deliveries based on the woman-characteristics (Robson's classification with additional layers of indications for CS, keeping in view low-resource settings available in India).

This is a cross-sectional study conducted at Nalanda Medical College, Patna. All the women delivered from January 2016 to May 2016 in the labor ward were included. Results obtained were compared with the values obtained for India, from secondary analysis of WHO multi-country survey (2010-2011) by Joshua Vogel and colleagues' study published in "The Lancet Global Health." The three classifications (indication-based, Robson's and hybrid model) applied for categorization of the cesarean deliveries from the same sample of data and a semiqualitative evaluations done, considering the main characteristics, strengths and weaknesses of each classification system.

The total number of women delivered during study period was 1462, out of which CS deliveries were 471. Overall, CS rate calculated for NMCH, hospital in this specified period, was 32.21% (p = 0.001). Hybrid model scored 23/23, and scores of Robson classification and indication-based classification were 21/23 and 10/23, respectively.

Single-study centre and referral bias are the limitations of the study.

Given the flexibility of the classifications, we constructed a hybrid model based on the woman-characteristics system with additional layers of other classification. Indication-based classification answers why, Robson classification answers on whom, while through our hybrid model we get to know why and on whom cesarean deliveries are being performed.