C-Sections in Puerto Rico Reached 50.5 Percent of All Births in 2022

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 10, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- The cesarean delivery rate in Puerto Rico reached 50.5 percent of all births in 2022, according to a January data brief published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Center for Health Statistics.

Michelle J. K. Osterman, from the National Center for Health Statistics in Hyattsville, Maryland, and Maria M. Juiz Gallego, from the Puerto Rico Department of Health in San Juan, describe trends in Puerto Rico's cesarean delivery rate from 2010 to 2022 using data from the National Vital Statistics System and assessed changes by maternal age, gestational age, and municipality from 2018 to 2022.

The researchers found that from 2010 to 2018, the cesarean delivery rate in Puerto Rico varied from 46.3 to 48.4 percent, then increased annually from 2019 to 2022, reaching 50.5 percent of all births in 2022. Cesarean delivery rates increased from 2018 to 2022 for each age group younger than 40 years; the increase was largest among mothers aged younger than 20 years (37.0 to 42.3 percent). From 2018 to 2022, there were increases in cesarean delivery rates for births delivered late preterm, early term, and full term. In three of the six largest municipalities, cesarean delivery rates increased from 2018 to 2022.

"In 2022, nearly two out of every three births to mothers age 40 and older, early-preterm births, and births occurring in Bayamón and Caguas were delivered by cesarean," the authors write.

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