Staff Reporter :
Cesarean section (C-section) child delivery has increased 50pc in 20 years, according to the Bangladesh Sample Vital Statistics 2023.
The information was revealed at the auditorium of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) on Sunday.
As per the report, the percentage of births delivered by C-section has been increasing over time, from 4pc in 2004, to 9pc in 2007, to 17pc in 2011, and to the current level of 23pc percent.
In the recent survey, the rate has increased to 31pc. Urban women are twice as likely as rural women to undergo C-section – 38pc in urban areas and 18pc in rural areas.
The report showed that among women with secondary or higher education and women in the highest wealth quintile, half of their babies were delivered by C-section.
The World Health Organization (WHO) always recommends that a country should accept a maximum of 10pc-15pc of C-section births, but anything higher is alarming.
In Bangladesh, the unnecessary higher Caesarean deliveries are causing physical harm to mothers and financial losses to families, WHO said.
Child mortality rates increase: The mortaity rate for children under five years has increased in the country.
In 2023, 33 out of every 1,000 children under the age of five died, compared to 31 in 2022, according to the BBS report.
The death rates for newborns and children under one year of age also rose.
The report says child mortality rates for those under five increased in both urban and rural areas.
Twenty out of every 1,000 newborn babies are under one month in 2023, up from 16 in 2022, it showed.
Moreover, 27 out of every thousand children under one year of age died in 2023, an increase from 24 in 2022.
