Believes and Preferences to have Elective Caesarean Delivery among Female Attendees to Primary Care Centers in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

Aim: The aim of the present study was to explore women’s view, and beliefs towards elective Caesarean section in an attempt to discover the role of these factors in increasing the CS rates. Objectives: To determine knowledge and Beliefs about caesarean sections among women attending primary health care centers in the Eastern Province. To determine the factors influencing their decision to undergo caesarian section. Methods: This was a cross sectional study, 400 women were selected randomly using systematic random sampling from the attendees to the primary health care centers in the King Abdulaziz Airbase Primary Health Care Center in Dhahran and were invited to respond to interview questionnaire to achieve the objectives of the study. Results: It was found that 157 (58.4%) of the women had previous CS, and two thirds of them was done without definite medical indication. Furthermore, about half of the women (49.7%) indicated that they agree to undergo CS in the future. It was found that the percentage of those who agree to undergone CS in the future was significantly increasing with increased age of the women , and the percentage ranged between 21.6% among those <30 years to 83.7% among those aged 40+ years. Also, the percentage was almost doubled among those who have university qualifications (66.9%) if compared to have less education level (34.7%). Similarly, the percentages were increasing consistently with increased monthly income, where it ranged between 29.9% among those with monthly income less than 5000 SR to 56% among those with monthly income more than 10000 SR. Conclusions: It was concluded that the rate of CS in our community come within the highest reported rates worldwide, and still considerable proportion agree to have elective CS even with absence of clinical indications. The most important potentiating factors for agreement to undergone CS were the age of the mother, educational level, monthly income and previous CS. Recommendations: Mothers must be fully educated about the advantages and disadvantages of CS, so they can take the proper decision, that could reduce the number of unnecessary CSs.