ABSTRACT
Background: The rising caesarean section (CS) rate in Nigeria has been reported by several studies. But while these studies were mainly conducted in tertiary health institutions; the experiences in the secondary health care facilities who are also actively involved in providing maternity care and caesarean delivery are rarely reported.Aim: To study the rates and indications for caesarean section in a secondary health facility in Uyo; Nigeria to provide alternate source of information on caesarean section. Methods: This was a five-year retrospective study of all cases of caesarean section in St Luke's hospital; Anua; Uyo; Nigeria covering the period of January 2000 to December 2004. Information on the socio-demographic characteristics of patients; number and types of CS and their indications were obtained from the delivery register; theatre register and other ward records. These were analyzed using simple percentages. Results: There were 10;190 deliveries in the period under review. Of these; 1384 were by caesarean sections giving a caesarean section rate of 13.6. The nullipara accounted for 36.6of cases of caesarean sections. There were similar rates of caesarean section among booked and unbooked patients. However; there were more emergency procedures among the unbooked patients.The major indication for caesarean section was fetal distress followed by repeat caesarean sections.Documentation and record keeping was a major challenge observed.Conclusion: Caesarean section rate observed in the study is lower than what obtains from most tertiary centres and falls within the recommended rates of 5-15