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Obstetrician gender and the likelihood of performing a maternal request for a cesarean delivery.

Liu TC, Lin HC, Chen CS, Lee HC

Department of Public Finance, National Taipei University, Taipei, Taiwan; Taipei Municipal Wan Fang Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the relationship between obstetrician gender and the likelihood of maternal request for cesarean section (CS) within different healthcare institutions (medical centers, regional hospitals, district hospitals, and obstetric and gynecology clinics). STUDY DESIGN: Five years of population-based data from Taiwan covering 857,920 singleton deliveries without a clinical indication for a CS were subjected to a multiple logistic regression to examine the association between obstetrician gender and the likelihood of maternal request for a CS. RESULTS: After adjusting for physician and institutional characteristics, it was found that male obstetricians were more likely to perform a requested CS than female obstetricians in district hospitals (OR=1.53) and clinics (OR=2.26), while obstetrician gender had no discernible associations with the likelihood of a CS upon maternal request in medical centers and regional hospitals. CONCLUSIONS: While obstetrician gender had the greatest association with delivery mode decisions in the lowest obstetric care units, those associations were diluted in higher-level healthcare institutions.

Published 8 January 2008 in Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol, 136(1): 46-52.
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