Effect of a participatory intervention to reduce the number of unnecessary cesarean sections performed in Shahrekord, Iran

In recent years the number of cesarean section have been increased sharply worldwide especially in Iran. At Shahrekord hospital district, 49% of deliveries are subjected to cesarean in 2001. An inclination to use participatory research to overcome health problems is now getting attention all over the world. In this research, the role of participatory people in decreasing cesarean frequency has been investigated. For this purpose, 171 pregnant women randomly selected from all pregnant women in Shahrekord. A participator team including housewives, teachers, sales, health communicators’ physicians, midwifes and nurses were responsible for educating the selected women about the indication of cesarean section and benefits of vaginal birth. The contexts of the educated women were evaluated by a questionnaire from before and after education. In this research, about 70% of the women were satisfied with the education program. Also, frequency of cesarean which were 63% before intervention and after education decreased to 51% as a result of the education. The result of this study indicated that in health subjects such a cesarean which is related to society and human culture, participatory interventions could yield satisfactory results.