Stratified rates of cesarean sections and spontaneous vaginal deliveries - Data from five labor wards in Denmark - 1996

Background. A fundamental point when auditing labor management is to ensure present and stratified process data. Method. Stratification of deliveries into ten mutually exclusive groups enabled comparisons of rates of cesarean sections and rates of spontaneous vaginal deliveries between labor wards. Results. Data from five labor wards in Denmark in 1996 were included in the study comprising a total of 11,287 women. The overall cesarean section rates were between 13.2 and 15.2% which was not a significant difference, whereas cesarean section rates in several of the ten groups and the rates of spontaneous vaginal delivery in group 1 and 3 were significantly different between the labor wards. Discussion. The method presented here is simple and can be used as an integrated part of the daily work and quality assurance. We advocate that stratification of the delivering women into ten groups should take place in every labor ward with focus on both. the cesarean section rate and the rate df spontaneous vaginal delivery. Stratification provides data for periodical evaluation of the outcome within a department and for comparison between departments with different populations and policy.