Abstract

Background and Purposes: Despite the national programs to reduce the rate of cesarean delivery, but it is increasing. Part of the increase in the cesarean delivery rate seems to be due to an increase in cesarean delivery requested by mothers in the absence of any medical or obstetric indications. This study aimed to determine factors affecting the rate of cesarean delivery on maternal request in Zanjan, Iran. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, a total of 1300 medical files of women referred to maternity hospitals in Zanjan in 2009 were randomly selected. Data were collected using a self-structured questionnaire via medical files recordings and interviewing with the women. Data were analyzed using the Chi-squared test, t-test, ANOVA and multivariate logistic regression. Findings: The results show that 42% of cesarean sections were elective. Most of the women (43.3%) had chosen the cesarean delivery due to fear of pain. The elective cesarean section was significantly correlated with the educational attainment, day of delivery, first birth, women's age, repeated cesarean section, and women's job (P<0.001). Conclusion: Promoting public awareness and efforts towards applying cesarean sections only in necessary occasions can reduce unnecessary cesarean sections and its possible side-effects.