ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the occurrence of cesarean section (CS) among reproductive age women in last thirty years, and explore the factors related to high CS rate. Methods Population proportional to size sampling method was employed in sampling. The sampled women were interviewed face to face. Data were double entered by EPIDATA 2.1 and analyzed by SPSS 11.5. Results The CS rate continuously increase from 0.9% in 1971-1980 to 20.2% in 2001-2002 and the speed is more and more rapid. More and more CSs were required by the women themselves and the rate increased from 19.3% in 1971-1985 to 49.7% in 2001-2002. Logistic regression analysis showed that women who were less than 30, senior high education or above and white-collar or jobless women had more than 8 times of antenatal visits, lived in eastern region and had B-ultrasound exam, were more likely to have caesarean section. Conclusions The caesarean section rate was increasing rapidly in the last thirty years especially after 1990. There are two reasons for this increase, on one hand caesa- rean sections with medical indications increase because of the progress of perinatal care and related technology; on the other hand unnecessary caesarean sections increase because of some social and demographic factors, which result in more caesarean section required by the pregnant women.