Harvard Public Health

esarean delivery of a baby—or C-section—is the world's most commonly performed surgery. Rates have been rising across the globe, but there has been a particularly notable increase in the United States. The C-section rate in the U.S. has jumped 500 percent since the mid-1970s and 1 in 3 babies are now born via C-section. C-section is incredibly common, but the surgery comes with risks for mothers, including hemorrhage and infection. In this week's episode, we'll take a look at efforts to figure out what is driving rising C-section rates, and what can be done to prevent them. Neel Shah, director of the Delivery Decisions Initiative at Ariadne Labs, will explain why the hospital where a woman gives birth may the single most important factor in whether or not she has a C-section.