Reporting Caesarean Delivery in district hospitals in Ouagadougou Using the Robson Classification System

Abstract

The aim of this study was to provide a description of caesarean section rates in district hospitals in Ouagadougou according to Robson's classification. Delivery data were collected over a 6 months period in the three public district hospitals in Ouagadougou. We reported the relative size of each Robson group, the caesarean section rate in each group, and the absolute and relative contributions of each group to the overall caesarean section rate. A total of 5111 deliveries were recorded, of which 1248 were by caesarean section, giving a global caesarean section rate of 24.41%. According to Robson's classification, the main contributors to the overall rate of caesarean section were multiparous women with a singleton fetus in cephalic presentation at term and a previous caesarean section ( group 5) with a relative contribution of 27.64%. The other contributors were women without previous uterine scar, at term in spontaneous labour , with a single foetus in cephalic presentation (group 1: nulliparous and group 3: multiparous) with relative contributions of 19.87% and 12.09 % respectively for group 1 and group 3. These three groups represented 60% of the total caesarean sections. Our results indicate that in district hospitals in Ouagadougou, the practice of caesarean section for women in groups 1, 3 and 5 should be given special attention.

Keywords: caesarean section, Robson classification, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.