Mexico is the country in the Americas with the second-highest prevalence of cesarean deliveries (second only to Brazil), states authors to a study published in Health Affairs. The authors used 2014 Mexican birth certificate data to perform population-level data analyses on more than 600,000 first-time mothers, with 48.7 percent of these births were cesarean deliveries. Individual Mexican states’ rates ranged widely but presented no clear geographical patterns. The study also revealed that enrollees in Seguro Popular, the public health insurance program, had lower cesarean birth rates than those in other insurance programs and those without insurance. The widest difference, however, was in the delivery location: cesarean rates in private birthing facilities occurred almost twice as often as those taking place in other facilities. The authors conclude that Mexico’s continuing transition toward universal health coverage through Seguro Popular…may help curb the cesarean epidemic.
Read more:
- Prevalence, Disparities, And Determinants Of Primary Cesarean Births Among First-Time Mothers In Mexico. Health Affairs, April 2017.