30% of Women Deliver by Caesarean
More than 30 percent of Korean women deliver babies by Caesarean section.
According to the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, some 37 percent of pregnant women delivered their babies via C-section in the first half of last year, up from 36 percent in 2006.
The state-run agency attributes the increase in C-sections to a rise in the number of mothers older than 35 and the growing rate of women carrying more than one baby at a time.
The rates of Caesarean sections by hospital vary from nine percent to 60 percent.
C-sections are conducted when the obstetrician decides that natural delivery poses a life-threatening danger to the mother or infant. The World Health Organization recommends the procedure be conducted on only five to 15 percent of pregnant women.