Association between Cesarean Delivery and Longer Birth Interval

To estimate whether and to what extent birth interval is associated with cesarean delivery. This is a retrospective cohort study of 3814 women who delivered a child during 60 month period. Women were grouped by their preceding birth interval in two groups i.e. less than 5 years and more than or equal to 5 years, and the rate of cesarean delivery was determined for these groups. The independent association of inter birth interval with cesarean delivery was further estimated after controlling for potential confounding factors using logistic regression. Women with an inter birth interval of less than 5 years had a cesarean delivery rate of 6.13. Women with inter birth intervals of 5 or more years had cesarean delivery rates of 9.85 (p<0.004). After controlling for potential confounding factors such as age, education and standard of living, the corresponding odds ratio (and 95% confidence intervals) for cesarean delivery for 5 year or more year inter birth interval group, in reference to the less than 5 years group, was 1.686 (1.119–2.542). A longer inter birth interval is independently associated with an increased risk of cesarean delivery.