Bhubaneswar: Odisha witnessed a spike in caesarean deliveries at private hospitals as over 2.13 lakh babies have been born through the C-section in last 2 years. 

This was revealed by Health and Family Welfare Minister Mukesh Mahaling in a reply to BJP MLA Tankadhar Tripathy's query in Assembly today. 

As per data shared by the Minister in the House, there were total 6,00,740 deliveries registered in 2022-23 fiscal and 5,91,185 in 2023-24 fiscal in hospitals both government and private, of which 4,17,297 (69.46%) and 3,95,607 (66.91%) were normal in 2022-23 and 2023-24 FYs respectively. 

While total 9,22,711 deliveries (4,71,652 in 2022-23 FY and 4,51,059 in 2023-24 FY) were registered in last 2 fiscals in government hospitals, 7,57,286 {3,88,207 (82.30%) in 2022-23 FY and 3,69,079 (81.82%) in 2023-24 FY} babies were born in normal process. The remaining 1,65,425 deliveries {83,445 (17.69%) in 2022-23 and 81,980 (18.17%) in 2023-24} were made through surgical procedure. 

However, the number of C section deliveries were registered more in private hospitals across the state in last two fiscals. 

As per the data, 2,13,596 babies born through C section in last two years, of total 2,69,214 deliveries in private hospitals. While the number of normal deliveries in 2022-23 FY was 29,090 (22.53%) and 26,528 (18.93%) in 2023-24 FY, the 99,998 (77.46%) babies were born through caesarean in 2022-23 FY and 1,13,598 (81.06%) in 2023-24.