Reasons for elective cesarean section on maternal request: a systematic review

Abstract

Background: Given the increasing rate of cesarean delivery and request without maternal or fetal indication among pregnant women, this systematic review was conducted to obtain the reasons for maternal request for elective cesarean section.Methods: We searched published studies from the first year of records through August 2018 in PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science. The quality assessment of the studies was performed by the improved Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. Due to data heterogeneity; no meta-analysis was performed.Results: Twenty-eight studies met the inclusion criteria and were included in the review. The results of studies on the reasons of maternal request for elective cesarean section were fear of labor pain, anxiety for fetal injury/death, fear of childbirth, urinary incontinence, pelvic floor and vaginal trauma, doctors suggestion, time of birth, experience of prior bad delivery, previous infertility, infertility, anxiety for gynecologic examination, anxiety for loss of control, avoid long labor, anxiety for lack of support from the staff, fear of fecal, emotional aspects, body weight of the infant at birth and abnormal prenatal examination. The results of studies on the demographic reasons of maternal request for elective cesarean section were advanced maternal age, parity, occupation, education, maternal obesity, family status, decreasing level of religiosity, household income, number of living children and age at marriage.Conclusions: Our study proposed that the comprehensive programs and the interventions of health promotion should be designed to reduce unnecessary cesarean section and improve the performance of vaginal delivery.

Keywords: Cesarean section; childbirth; choice; decision making; maternal.