Balancing the knife: India debates the pros and cons of pushing caesarean sections

Lakshmi was due to deliver her baby in a week, so her in-laws called an astrologer to find the perfect “muhurat”—an auspicious time and day—to have the baby delivered through caesarean section.Muhurat deliveries have become a trend in India, with families believing that a task performed at a certain time on a given day gives a positive result. This belief, mixed with other reasons such as fear of labour and desire for a painless delivery, is pushing more Indian women to opt for caesarean sections to deliver their babies.The rate of caesarean deliveries in India more than doubled from 8% in 2005 to 17% in 2016. According to the most recent (2019-21) data from the National Family Health Survey conducted by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the number of caesareans performed in India rose from 17.2% in the previous (2017-19) survey to 21.5%. (For comparison, in the US…
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