28 February,2017 04:44 PM IST | | Rupsa Chakraborty
According to an RTI filed by an online portal in response to a Mumbaikar's, over 2 lakh children have been born through C-section in the city. The development has led the Union Women and Child Welfare department to look into the matter
In the past six years, caesarean deliveries in Mumbai have increased by over 150 per cent, both in government and private hospitals. According to an RTI filed by an online portal in response to a Mumbaikar's, over 2 lakh children have been born through C-section in the city. The development has led the Union Women and Child Welfare department to look into the matter.
Mothers in the city claim the rise in number is due to limited choices provided by most doctors. Consequently, they have demanded the right to choose between caesarean and normal delivery.
As per the RTI, caesarean deliveries in Mumbai increased from 22,292 in 2010 to 56,209 in 2015. C-section deliveries in private hospitals were almost 200 per cent higher than those in government hospitals. In the same period, private hospitals recorded 1,76,843 cases, while government hospitals registered 60,492.
The years long debate got a boost when Santa Cruz resident Subarna Ghosh filed a petition on Change.org that went viral in social media and received over 1.2 lakh signatures. Responding to the petition, Union Minister Maneka Gandhi has said, "This issue has been deeply worrying me as it has direct linkage with the health of women per se. I have suggested mandating the hospitals to publicly display the number of C-Sections and normal deliveries."
City mothers say doctors should explain the after-effects of C-section before seeking consent from a pregnant woman. Neha Chopra, who has a 3-year-old child said, "I had a healthy pregnancy but I never received unbiased and size-friendly care and counsel. After crossing my due date, my doctors felt that I should undergo a caesarean. We weÂre made to opt for a caesarean only because we were scared. I feel that this information gap created by doctors is a disturbing trend."
Speaking to Midday, Pradeep Bhatt from RTI online said, "All private hospitals submit their audit records to BMC, in which they mention information related to deliveries. It took a long time to compile all the data from the reports."
