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Do Italian women prefer cesarean section? Results from a survey on mode of delivery preferences
BACKGROUND: About 20 million cesareans occur each year in the world and rates have steadily increased in almost all middle- and high-income countries over the last decades. Maternal request is often argued as one of the key forces driving this increase. Italy has the highest cesarean rate of Europe,...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BioMed Central
2013
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3621281/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23530472 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2393-13-78 |
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author | Torloni, Maria Regina Betrán, Ana Pilar Montilla, Pilar Scolaro, Elisa Seuc, Armando Mazzoni, Agustina Althabe, Fernando Merzagora, Francesca Donzelli, Gian Paolo Merialdi, Mario |
author_facet | Torloni, Maria Regina Betrán, Ana Pilar Montilla, Pilar Scolaro, Elisa Seuc, Armando Mazzoni, Agustina Althabe, Fernando Merzagora, Francesca Donzelli, Gian Paolo Merialdi, Mario |
author_sort | Torloni, Maria Regina |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: About 20 million cesareans occur each year in the world and rates have steadily increased in almost all middle- and high-income countries over the last decades. Maternal request is often argued as one of the key forces driving this increase. Italy has the highest cesarean rate of Europe, yet there are no national surveys on the views of Italian women about their preferences on route of delivery. This study aimed to assess Italian women´s preference for mode of delivery, as well as reasons and factors associated with this preference, in a nationally representative sample of women. METHODS: This cross sectional survey was conducted between December 2010-March 2011. An anonymous structured questionnaire asked participants what was their preferred mode of delivery and explored the reasons for this preference by assessing their agreement to a series of statements. Participants were also asked to what extent their preference was influenced by a series of possible sources. The 1(st) phase of the study was carried out among readers of a popular Italian women´s magazine (Io Donna). In a 2(nd) phase, the study was complemented by a structured telephone interview. RESULTS: A total of 1000 Italian women participated in the survey and 80% declared they would prefer to deliver vaginally if they could opt. The preference for vaginal delivery was significantly higher among older (84.7%), more educated (87.6%), multiparous women (82.3%) and especially among those without any previous cesareans (94.2%). The main reasons for preferring a vaginal delivery were not wanting to be separated from the baby during the first hours of life, a shorter hospital stay and a faster postpartum recovery. The main reasons for preferring a cesarean were fear of pain, convenience to schedule the delivery and because it was perceived as being less traumatic for the baby. The source which most influenced the preference of these Italian women was their obstetrician, followed by friends or relatives. CONCLUSION: Four in five Italian women would prefer to deliver vaginally if they could opt. Factors associated with a higher preference for cesarean delivery were youth, nulliparity, lower education and a previous cesarean. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-3621281 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2013 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-36212812013-04-10 Do Italian women prefer cesarean section? Results from a survey on mode of delivery preferences Torloni, Maria Regina Betrán, Ana Pilar Montilla, Pilar Scolaro, Elisa Seuc, Armando Mazzoni, Agustina Althabe, Fernando Merzagora, Francesca Donzelli, Gian Paolo Merialdi, Mario BMC Pregnancy Childbirth Research Article BACKGROUND: About 20 million cesareans occur each year in the world and rates have steadily increased in almost all middle- and high-income countries over the last decades. Maternal request is often argued as one of the key forces driving this increase. Italy has the highest cesarean rate of Europe, yet there are no national surveys on the views of Italian women about their preferences on route of delivery. This study aimed to assess Italian women´s preference for mode of delivery, as well as reasons and factors associated with this preference, in a nationally representative sample of women. METHODS: This cross sectional survey was conducted between December 2010-March 2011. An anonymous structured questionnaire asked participants what was their preferred mode of delivery and explored the reasons for this preference by assessing their agreement to a series of statements. Participants were also asked to what extent their preference was influenced by a series of possible sources. The 1(st) phase of the study was carried out among readers of a popular Italian women´s magazine (Io Donna). In a 2(nd) phase, the study was complemented by a structured telephone interview. RESULTS: A total of 1000 Italian women participated in the survey and 80% declared they would prefer to deliver vaginally if they could opt. The preference for vaginal delivery was significantly higher among older (84.7%), more educated (87.6%), multiparous women (82.3%) and especially among those without any previous cesareans (94.2%). The main reasons for preferring a vaginal delivery were not wanting to be separated from the baby during the first hours of life, a shorter hospital stay and a faster postpartum recovery. The main reasons for preferring a cesarean were fear of pain, convenience to schedule the delivery and because it was perceived as being less traumatic for the baby. The source which most influenced the preference of these Italian women was their obstetrician, followed by friends or relatives. CONCLUSION: Four in five Italian women would prefer to deliver vaginally if they could opt. Factors associated with a higher preference for cesarean delivery were youth, nulliparity, lower education and a previous cesarean. BioMed Central 2013-03-26 /pmc/articles/PMC3621281/ /pubmed/23530472 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2393-13-78 Text en Copyright © 2013 Torloni et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Torloni, Maria Regina Betrán, Ana Pilar Montilla, Pilar Scolaro, Elisa Seuc, Armando Mazzoni, Agustina Althabe, Fernando Merzagora, Francesca Donzelli, Gian Paolo Merialdi, Mario Do Italian women prefer cesarean section? Results from a survey on mode of delivery preferences |
title | Do Italian women prefer cesarean section? Results from a survey on mode of delivery preferences |
title_full | Do Italian women prefer cesarean section? Results from a survey on mode of delivery preferences |
title_fullStr | Do Italian women prefer cesarean section? Results from a survey on mode of delivery preferences |
title_full_unstemmed | Do Italian women prefer cesarean section? Results from a survey on mode of delivery preferences |
title_short | Do Italian women prefer cesarean section? Results from a survey on mode of delivery preferences |
title_sort | do italian women prefer cesarean section? results from a survey on mode of delivery preferences |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3621281/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23530472 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2393-13-78 |
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