Analysis of caesarean sections according to Robson's ten group classification system at a tertiary care teaching hospital in South India

Background: The caesarean section (CS) delivery rate is steadily increasing worldwide, including India. Identifying the proportion of women in various categories as per Robson's ten group classification system and CS rate among them is important to bring down the increasing CS rate. Methods: This retrospective study was conducted at Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), a tertiary care teaching hospital in Puducherry, South India. The data was collected for the women delivered by CS during January 2011 to December 2011 and proportions in various groups as per Robson’s ten-group classification system were calculated. Results: Among a total of 1123 women delivered during study period, 367 (32.6%) delivered by CS. The CS rates among various groups varied from 100% among women with breach presentation (group 6 and group 7) and abnormal lies (group 9) to 5.9% among multiparous women with spontaneous labour having single cephalic pregnancy (group 3). Among women with precious section, CS rate was very high (89.6%). Women with previous CS (group 5) contributed maximum (40.1%) to the total number of CS. Conclusions: In the present study, all women with breech presentation and abnormal lies delivered by CS and repeat CS was the highest contributor to all CS deliveries.