Ob. Rasmussen et al., Stratified rates of cesarean sections and spontaneous vaginal deliveries -Data from five labor wards in Denmark - 1996, ACT OBST SC, 79(3), 2000, pp. 227-231
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 ena
bled comparisons of rates of cesarean sections and rates of spontaneous vag
inal 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 rat
es were between 13.2 and 15.2% which was not a significant difference, wher
eas cesarean section rates in several of the ten groups and the rates of sp
ontaneous vaginal delivery in group 1 and 3 were significantly different be
tween the labor wards.
Discussion. The method presented here is simple and can be used as an integ
rated part of the daily work and quality assurance. We advocate that strati
fication 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 s
pontaneous vaginal delivery. Stratification provides data for periodical ev
aluation of the outcome within a department and for comparison between depa
rtments with different populations and policy.