Almost 60 per cent of births at some Sydney private hospitals are now by caesarean, as more women seek to “control” childbirth amid increased discussion of traumatic experiences in labour.
At North Sydney’s Mater Hospital and Kareena Private Hospital in Caringbah, more than 59 per cent of first-time mothers aged 20 to 34 gave birth via caesarean in 2023, according to NSW Health’s latest Mothers and Babies report.
A Mater Hospital spokesperson said it had observed an increase in caesareans “in part” due to rising maternal age and patient preference, but also because it opened a new operating theatre purpose-built for the procedure in 2019.
In 2023, 39.2 per cent of births in NSW were caesareans, up from 35.1 per cent in 2019 and significantly above the World Health Organisation’s global target range of 10 to 15 per cent.
The report found elective, not emergency, caesareans drove the increase.
The average age of a NSW woman giving birth has risen to 31.4 years.
Women who have caesarean births are at increased risk of placental abnormalities and hospital infections, and must also recover from major surgery in the weeks after their birth. In Australia, only 12 per cent of women have a vaginal delivery after a caesarean.
Concerns have been raised about private obstetricians steering women towards caesareans for their own convenience.
Last year, NSW’s landmark birth trauma inquiry heard from thousands of women.
Dahlen said the inquiry had been overwhelmingly beneficial – and applauded funding for midwifery continuity of care models in June’s budget, a key inquiry recommendation. But she was concerned discussion of traumatic birth experiences had left a minority of women fearing vaginal delivery, including higher-risk women refusing to give birth in hospital, and those who felt caesareans were “the only way they can control their birth”.
There were 88,297 births in NSW in 2023, the fewest since 2004.
Source: Childbirth: The NSW hospitals where 60 per cent of women have caesareans