Wide variation in use of C-sections across hospitals

There is wide variation across hospitals in how often first-time mothers already in labour are given unplanned caesarean sections, according to data just published by the National Perinatal Epidemiology Centre.

The figures show that the rate was 18% in University Hospital Kerry compared to just 8% in the National Maternity Hospital in Dublin.

The data for 2014 was extracted from the annual reports of the nine units where a total of 45,543 women were delivered.