Estimating the infection rate in mothers following caesarean section

Some hospitals send comparatively few swabs to their laboratories for examination, consequently any measure of infection that depends on routinely analysed swabs is likely to underestimate the actual level of infection. In a survey of routine wound swabs from mothers following caesarean section, it was found that the average infection rate in 31 hospitals was 6%, with considerable variation between the hospitals. Further consideration of the data as described in this paper shows that the actual infection rate was about 14%, with much less variation between hospitals.