Abstract
Cesarean section was originally indicated to preserve the life of a mother with obstructed labor or to deliver a viable infant from a mother who was dying.1 Although now in widespread use in less dire situations, the operative approach to delivery is associated with significantly greater economic costs compared with vaginal delivery. The increased cost of cesarean section is related both to higher delivery charges and the costs of maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality. In a health care policy environment that increasingly emphasizes cost effectiveness and cost containment, high rates of use of expensive health care technologies such as cesarean section must be justified by improvements in outcome that are worth their cost.
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Gardner, L.B. (1995). Economic Considerations in Cesarean Section Use. In: Flamm, B.L., Quilligan, E.J. (eds) Cesarean Section. Clinical Perspectives in Obstetrics and Gynecology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-2482-2_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-2482-2_13
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