Characteristics and Outcomes Associated with Cesarean Birth as Compared to Vaginal Birth at Mizan-Tepi University Teaching Hospital, Ethiopia

INTRODUCTION: The objective of this study was to observe characteristics and outcomes associated with cesarean birth as compared to vaginal birth. METHODS: This study was a prospective hospital-based cross-sectional analysis of a convenience sample of 1, 000 women. Data was collected on admission, delivery, and discharge by trained physician data collectors on paper forms through chart review and patient interview. RESULTS: Data on mode of delivery was available for 993/1000 women (0.7% missing data), 23.4% of whom underwent cesarean. These women were less likely to have labored (84.5% versus 87.4%), more likely to have been transferred (62.0% versus 45.2%), more likely to have been admitted in early labor (53.0% versus 48.6%), more likely to be in labor for longer than 24 hours (10.7% versus 3.3%) and were less likely to have multiple gestation (7.7% versus 3.9%), p < 0.05. In a Poisson model, history of cesarean (aRR 2.0, p < 0.001), transfer during labor (RR 1.5, p = 0.003), labor longer than 24 hours and larger birthweight (RR 2.7, p 0.001) were associated with an increased risk of cesarean. CONCLUSION: Our analysis suggests cesarean birth is being used among women with a history of prior cesarean and in cases of labor complications (prolonged labor or transfer), but fresh stillbirth is still common in this setting.