Caesarean section in four South East Asian countries: reasons for, rates, associated care practices and health outcomes

Table 1 Rates and main indications for caesarean section (as percentage of overall births and percentages of rates consecutively)

	Indonesia			Malaysia			The Philippines			Thailand
	Overall	Tertiary	District	Overall	Tertiary 1	Tertiary 2	Overall	Tertiary 1	Tertiary 2	Overall	Regional	University	Provincial
	n = 2086	n = 1019	n = 1067	n = 2379	n = 1249	n = 1130	n = 2085	n = 1026	n = 1059	n = 3000	n = 1000	n = 1000	n = 1000
Rate of caesarean section	29.6	28.7	30.6	19.1	21.1	16.8	22.7	12.3	32.9	34.8	33.3	33.2	38.0
Indication for caesarean section
Malpresentations	5.5	3.8	7.1	5.0	5.4	4.6	3.9	2.5	5.3	4.5	5.5	3.8	4.3
Previous caesarean section	4.5	3.0	5.8	3.3	3.5	3.1	10.1	6.6	13.4	9.7	8.8	9.3	11.0
Cephalopelvic disproportion	3.8	2.0	5.5	4.8	5.4	4.2	3.0	1.3	4.6	11.4	9.7	9.3	15.2
Fetal distress	3.3	4.0	2.6	3.3	3.8	2.7	2.0	0.3	3.7	4.2	5.2	3.8	3.7
Failure to progress	3.4	4.3	2.4	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.7	0.2	1.4	0.6
Antepartum haemorrhage	2.5	2.5	2.5	1.2	1.2	1.2	1.7	1.0	2.5	0.6	0.8	0.6	0.5
Pre-eclampsia/eclampsia	2.2	3.2	1.1	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.7	1.1	0.4	0.7
Maternal request	2.1	3.7	0.6	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Premature rupture of membranes	1.6	1.0	2.2	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.3	0.2	0.3	0.3
Other Maternal conditions	0.4	0.4	0.5	0.7	1.0	0.4	1.0	0.0	1.9	1.4	0.6	2.9	0.8
Multiple pregnancy	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.1	0.1	0.2	0.2	0.1	0.3	0.7	0.6	0.6	0.9
Other	0.4	0.7	0.2	0.5	0.6	0.4	0.9	0.5	1.2	0.5	0.6	0.8	0.0