BMJ 2000;321:125-126 ( 15 July )

Editorials

Obstetric interventions among private and public patients

High rates of operative vaginal interventions in private patients need analysis

Papers p 137

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Pregnant women in Australia who give birth in private hospitals have higher rates of operative delivery (caesarean sections, forceps procedures, and vacuum extractions) than those who use public hospitals. Do they need to have more caesarean sections? In this edition of the BMJ, Roberts and colleagues (p 137) examine the risk profiles of these two populations among women having babies in New South Wales, Australia.1 They found that similar rates of women were classified as low risk (48% in private hospitals and 49% in public). Within these low risk groups, private patients were more likely to be 30-34 years old, but the proportion of women classed as being at low risk was the same in each group. The authors, therefore, reasonably argue that this counters the commonly held view that the reason for higher rates of caesarean sections in private patients in Australia is because women at higher risk . . . [Full text of this article]
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Relevant Article

Rates for obstetric intervention among private and public patients in Australia: population based descriptive study
Christine L Roberts, Sally Tracy, and Brian Peat
BMJ 2000 321: 137-141. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Papapetros, I., Shorten, A. (2001). Obstetric intervention among private and public patients in Australia. BMJ 322: 430-430 [Full text]  

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