24% of births delivered via Caesarian section

ONE-IN-FOUR births in Ireland are delivered via Caesarean section, new figures show.

A report by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) on perinatal statistics, published today, shows that delivery by Caesarean section accounted for 24% of all births in 2003.

One-fifth of all babies were born via Caesarean section in 1999, with the number of such births increasing to 22% in 2002.