Caesarean | Pakistan

ANKARA: Turkiye’s health ministry has fined more than 100 obstetrician-gynaecologists for carrying out Caesarean sections, suspending them from duty and forcing them to undergo training, BirGun newspaper reported on Saturday. The country has the highest rate of C-section births among the OECD’s 38 nations, according to the last available data from 2023, with around 615 such procedures out of every 1,000 live births that year. Medical professionals have said C-sections were more time-efficient for medical staff — 30 minutes, versus 12 hours for a traditional delivery — and lowered the risk of legal action over complications, ensuring a guarantee of safety for both the physician and the women. Last year, the Turkish government began a campaign to tackle falling birthrates under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s “Decade of the Family” initiative that has seen it move to exert greater control over how women give birth. Erdogan, a pious Muslim who is pushing for women to have so-called natural births, wants to addr...