Increasing Caesarean Section Delivery in India: A Threat to Urban Women’s Health?

Sancheeta Ghosh, International Center for Research on Women (ICRW)
K. S. James, Institute for Social and Economic Change

The current paper discusses emerging concern for high c-section births in urban India, its causes and pattern. The debate over medicalisation of maternal health for current increase in c-section births is critically discussed. Medicalisation of human body in general has received lot of attention both theoretically and empirically in the last few decades. Beside the quantitative analysis on trends and patterns on c-section births in India and different states, the paper also attempt to understand elective caesarean or caesarean by choice as important factor behind such trend. While doing so, the analysis focuses on case studies of women who had caesarean births in an urban setup, there experiences and decision making for delivery and also the power dynamics that works between doctors and patient in medical world by analyzing Fucault's concept of Power in Medical Profession.