Caesarean section--an appraisal of some predictive factors in Lagos Nigeria.

Background: Several maternity units in the developing world lack facilities for caesarean section and often have to transfer patients in extremis. This case controlled study aimed to appraise predictive factors for caesarean section.

Methods: One hundred and fifty two consecutive women with singleton pregnancies who had caesarean section were studied. The next parturient with normal delivery served as control. Variables such as age, parity, marital status, booking status, past obstetric history, weight, height, infant birth weight were assessed. Data obtained were analysed using SPSS 16.0 Windows package.

Results: During the study period, there were 641 deliveries with 257 of them by caesarean section (40.1%).Logistic regression analysis showed that parity, booking status, maternal height; maternal weight, birth weight, previous caesarean section and ante-partum bleeding were significant predictive factors for caesarean section while maternal age was not.

Conclusions: These predictive factors should be considered in antenatal counseling to facilitate acceptance by at risk women and early referral.