Caesarian operations:

Alarming increase

Nadira GUNATILLEKE

Healthcare and Nutrition Minister Nimal Siripla de Silva has made a request from the Family Health Bureau to conduct a special study on 'Performing caesarian operations in Sri Lanka' in order to find out the real reasons behind the alarming increase of caesarian operations taking place in Sri Lanka which has already exceeded the WHO recommendation, Healthcare and Nutrition Ministry spokesman said.

He said that 15,175 caesarian operations had taken place in Sri Lanka in 2007 and 2008 statistics to be released soon. This is 32 percent of the total number of childbirths took place in Sri Lanka during the same year.

The proposed study will also focus on the reasons given by young mothers when requesting a caesarian operation. Technical auditing will be done on past caesarian operations performed in Sri Lanka to find out the real reasons behind the decision to perform those operations. According to unconfirmed findings the majority of caesarian operations in Sri Lanka take place because of reasons other than on medical grounds.