Consumer demand for caesarean sections in Brazil

doi:10.1136/bmj.325.7359.335

BMJ 2002;325:335 ( 10 August )

Letters

Consumer demand for caesarean sections in Brazil

Demand should be assessed rather than inferred

Demand is affected by mothers' perception of good health care

Episiotomy rates may change after evidence based intervention

Demand should be assessed rather than inferred

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

EDITOR $---$ Several recent papers present evidence that in Brazil consumer demand for caesarean sections is much lower than previouslyassumed. ¹ ² Langer and Villar³ state that the resultsreported by Béhague et al contradict these findings.⁴ We aresurprised by thisassertion.

Despite using the term consumer demand in their title, Béhague et al do not present an estimate of the demand for caesareansections in the population they studied $---$ mothers giving birth in1993 in a medium sized city in southern Brazil. The only statisticthat relates to demand is the proportion of a subsample of mothers(32/80) who stated that when they went to the hospital they expectedto deliver by caesarean section. But the type of delivery thata woman expects may not be the type of birth she would prefer,especially in the private sector, where most caesareans arescheduled.

Also puzzling is Béhague et al's failure . . . [Full text of this article]

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