The Relevance of the Second Cesarean Delivery in the Reduction of Institutional Cesarean Delivery Rates

The cesarean delivery rate has increased worldwide. The aim of our study was to assess the events associated with the second cesarean deliveries in our institution.

All cesarean deliveries at the Maternity Hospital, Kuwait, from January 1 to December 31, 2013, were identified. A comparative study was undertaken on patients having their first and second cesarean deliveries. The social and clinical characteristics of these patients were extracted from our records and the antenatal, intrapartum, and postpartum course of the pregnancies and their outcomes documented.

During the study period, 10,586 deliveries were recorded, including 3,676 cesarean deliveries, i.e., a cesarean delivery rate of 34.7%. 840 of these patients were undergoing their first cesarean delivery (group A) and 607 patients were undergoing their second (group B); 484 patients from group A and 341 patients from group B with complete records were analyzed. Mean age (30.89 ± 4.93 vs. 29.94 ± 5.56 years, p = 0.008), parity (1.49 ± 1.22 vs. 0.98 ± 1.60, p < 0.0001), gestational age at delivery (38.12 ± 2.61 vs. 37.66 ± 3.11 weeks, p = 0.02), and fetal birth weight (3,211.60 ± 691.51 vs. 2,829.73 ± 863.26 g, p < 0.001) were significantly higher in group B than in group A. 53.2% of the patients in group B requested repeat cesarean delivery, their second cesarean. The rate of maternal morbidity was low.

The incidence of repeat cesarean delivery in group B is high, and its reduction should contribute to a lowering of the overall cesarean delivery rate.