The influence of obstetric workload on cesarean section rate

The cesarean section rate in a busy obstetric unit was studied in relation to the monthly confinement rate. A total of 30,825 births over a period of 5 years were analyzed. There was a negative correlation between the emergency cesarean section rate and the unit workload (correlation = -.498, 2 tailed p = 0.0001) whilst there was no relationship between workload and the elective cesarean section rate. This suggested that the unit may reach a certain saturation level as far as the emergency cases were concerned during the busy periods. However, there was no evidence that the perinatal outcome was affected by this variation in emergency cesarean section rate.