reasons for choosing cesarean among women referred to bea’sat hospital of sanandaj (2004)

introduction: the main reason for choosing cesarean delivery is to save the life or health of the mother and her baby. however, cesarean is not without complications, either for the mother or the baby. it is well documented that cesarean rate in iran is higher than other developing countries and mother’s request reported the main influencing factor. this study carried out to find the relative frequency of the reasons of choosing cesarean among women who referred to the bea’sat hospital of sanandaj during 2004. materials and methods : 60 women who had undergone a cesarean delivery based on their own request recruited. data was collected through face-to-face interview. results: an average age of subject was 28.4 years and 60% of them had an academic degree. 78.4% had no previous delivery history and more than 50% of the participants have been under supervision of both national and private medical services. 80% had not received any training in delivery methods. more than 50% of the subjects had persisted their physician to perform the cesarean delivery. the most common reasons for choosing the cesarean were fear (48.3%) and unpleasant feeling of risk or danger for baby (18.3%). fearing delivery pain and lack of alleviative measures were the most common reasons for cesarean. physician recommendation (13.3%), belief in limited facilities and educational environment of hospital were the other reasons for choosing cesarean. conclusion: it can be concluded that increasing knowledge of pregnant women through primary care education system and applying proper methods of pain relief with promoting them to select normal delivery may decrease cesarean rate. further research in different age and socio economic groups with more details are recommended.