Increase in C-section stretching budgets for New Zealand Hospitals

In 1980, 9 per cent of women giving birth had a c-section. In 1990, it reached 15 per cent and last year, Auckland City Hospital measured a 31.2 per cent.

One in every four woman in New Zealand chooses to undergo caesarean section surgery. Almost 15 per cent of the mothers book the operation before they go into labour.

The increase in c-sections over the last decades is now affecting the hospital budgets in New Zealand, as health s budgets are already stretched, and the procedure is costly.

WHO, World Health Organisation, has recently expressed its concern in regards to this increasing number of c-sections, and their recommended rate suggests that a maximum of 15 per cent of all births should be a caesarean section delivery.

Sue Belgrave, Director of Obstetrics at Waitakere and North Shore Hospitals, expresses her concern and says the rate has been increasing for too long and that measures have to be taken.

“I don’t think we can reverse the trend easily, but it can’t continue to rise without massive implications”, she says.

A c-section involves a trip to the operating theatre, anaesthetics, an operating team etcetera, and the cost  to a taxpayer is around $6000, when a non- New Zealand resident chooses to undergo the procedure.