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Proportion of deliveries with primary, repeat and total CS in Italy by region (values per 100):Year 2020. Source: Osservatorio Nazionale sulla Salute nelle Regioni Italiane.
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Going down from the north of Italy to the south, for example, recourse to CS increases significantly (Figure 1).
Proportion of births by type of caesarean in Europe:Year 2015. Source: EURO-PERISTAT Project.
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Figure 2 shows the percentage of cesareans divided between planned and emergency for the year 2015.
Interventions during labor and delivery:Year 2013 (per 100 women who had a spontaneous birth). Source: ISTAT.
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Italy spontaneous childbirth, which affected 63.5% of women in 2020 (Ministry of Health,), often turns into operative delivery.9 The reference here is to artificial rupture of membranes (32% of spontaneous deliveries), episiotomy (34.7%), and the administration of oxytocin to increase the frequency and intensity of contractions (22.3%). ISTAT data (2017) detected a rather high level of overall medical intervention in 2013 with 73.7% of women having undergone one of these procedures (Figure 3).