title: [Lucina's kidnap (or how to stop the cesarean section epidemic)].
abstract: Cesarean sections rates have increased considerably in high- and middle-income countries in recent years. In Latin America the rates of surgical births reached 30% in Brazil, 40% in Chile, and 36% in Mexico. This essay describes the relationship of cesarean section with several mythological characters, presents a brief history of surgical births, and discusses the possible origin of its explosive increase. Among the factors associated to this epidemic we can mention economic incentives, a mounting supply of specialists, and the lack of comprehensive information on birth alternatives for pregnant women. The essay concludes with a call for a generalized control of this procedure based on evidence gathered through different kinds of interventions.
authors.affiliation: Dirección General de Evaluación del Desempeño, Secretaría de Salud, México. ogomez@salud.gob.mx
authors.forename: Octavio
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Gómez-Dantés
mesh_terms: D002585:Cesarean Section / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009229:Mythology; D011247:Pregnancy