16% of annual natural births take place at home: Statistics

CAIRO - 8 August 2018: The Population Health Survey issued by the Ministry of Health and Population recently confirmed that 16 percent of the annual births take place at home, stressing the need to return to normal births and stay away from the caesarean delivery.

According to the latest survey, caesarean deliveries make up 52 percent of total annual births. Egypt currently ranks third in caesarean deliveries.

Suad Abdul Majid, head of the basic care sector, said that there is a tendency to urge women to distance themselves from cesarean births and to go back to natural delivery, noting that C-section has significant health risks.

Caesarean births have recently spread in Egypt, with the rate almost doubling from 27.6 to 51.8 percent of total births between 2008 and 2014, until Egypt reached the third place in caesarean section.

Earlier this year, Khaled al-Atefy, director of the General Department of Maternal and Child Health in the Ministry of Health and Population, explained the reasons for the increased percentage of cesarean births according to a study conducted on 13 public hospitals and three private hospitals.

Some of the reasons cited are lack of resources, such as painkillers, and lack of adequate training for newly graduated doctors in natural deliveries.