The World Health Organization considers a "normal" rate for births by C-section to be 15 percent. None of the 17 largest maternity hospitals in the Czech Republic achieves this rate; in fact, they more than double it.

These are the results of an analysis of data on hospital care reimbursement, prepared and conducted by the platform Health of the Insured.

Huge differences

The analysis confirms what has so far been only speculation: that there are huge differences in hospitals' attitude towards pregnant women. The data shows, for example, that while in one hospital less than 10 percent of women give birth by C-section, in another comparable hospital up to 40 percent of children are being born in this way.

"And there are differences between the specialized centers that have the same portfolio of patients - here the percentage of surgical deliveries differs by twice as much," says the analysis, authored by biostatistician Marketa Pavlikova.

One issue that drives the high rates of C-section delivers is that they are often used in unnecessary cases. For example, many obstetricians consider the mental state of the patient - the woman's fear at the time - to be a serious enough medical issue to warrant the procedure.