Nonclinical Factors of Cesarean Section Birth: A Review of the Literature

The rate of cesarean section (CS) birth has increased dramatically across the world during the last few decades, mainly in high-income and middle-income countries. The aim of this study is to explore the nonclinical risk factors of CS birth and to look into its similarities and dissimilarities influencing CS birth between developed and developing countries. A search of the existing literature was conducted on electronic databases, such as PubMed, JSTOR, SpringerLink, ScienceDirect, and so forth. The maternal age is the most common factor of CS birth in almost all studies of developed and developing countries. Furthermore, type of hospitals is another predominant factor of CS birth as seen in more than half of the studies of developing countries and in several studies of developed countries. Nevertheless, it is also found that there is variation in main findings of CS birth according to the level of development. In most of the studies in developed countries, CS birth is highly associated with maternal age and birth weight of the baby. On the contrary, in developing countries, most of the studies show that CS birth is highly associated with maternal age, maternal education, type of hospitals, place of residence, number of antenatal care, and parity.