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In the absence of medical necessity, opting for caesarean sections exposes mothers and neonates to increased risks of enduring long-term health problems and mortality. This ultimately results in greater economic burden when compared to the outcomes of spontaneous vaginal births. In Switzerland around 33% of all births are by caesarean section. However, the rate of caesarean sections without medical indication is still unknown. Therefore, we devise an identification strategy to differentiate caesarean sections without medical indication using routine data. In addition, we aim to categorize the influencing factors for women who undergo spontaneous vaginal births as opposed to those with caesarean sections without medical indication.

We use Swiss Federal Statistics data including 98.3% of all women giving birth from 2014 to 2018. To determine non-medically indicated caesarean sections in …