Restricting scheduled cesarean section: evidences from Brazil

Abstract

Brazil has a high C-section ratio, specifically in private sector, it is a share of 88% (ANS), many of them are considered unnecessary by the National Health Agency (ANS). There are also reports of convenience effect existence, which refers to physicians manipulating birth time in order to enjoy leisure time (Rocha and Spinola, 2016). This research measures consequences of Resolution 2,144 of 17th March 2016, which prohibited Cesarean Sections’(CS’s) done by request of woman being performed before the 39th week of pregnancy. Using open available data from ANS, linear models are specified in order to test if the policy affected the CS’s ratio and the identified convenience effect. Through linear Regression Functions, the research finds that the policy lowered the CS’s ratio 0.7% percentage points on average. For cities of Campinas and Curitiba, the ratio respectively diminished 11 and 9% percentage points. It also finds out that the convenience effecdata2¡-paste0(BRASIL2016.RData) t exists only for periods before the policy was enacted.