Temple posters, orders to priests: How Telangana district is fighting ‘auspicious’ caesareans

Karimnagar: Temple priests will no longer choose an auspicious date for babies to be born via Caesarean sections.

So says a poster at the Tapala Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy Temple in Thimmapur mandal of Telangana’s Karimnagar district. The poster also informs devout parents-to-be that the decision has been taken following orders from the district administration.

Similar banners have also appeared recently at other temples in the district, as a measure to counter the high number of surgical deliveries here. The hope is that parents will be more willing to take a chance on natural births if the ‘perk’ of an auspicious date and time is removed.

In the last week of April, Karimnagar collector R.V. Karnan held a meeting of doctors and around 35 priests from different temples across the district. The idea was to instruct doctors, particularly those from private hospitals, to encourage vaginal deliveries, and for priests to withhold divine blessings for unnecessary surgeries.

According to data accessed by ThePrint, of the 6,693 births in private hospitals in the district from January 2019 to May 2022, a staggering 90.91 per cent — 6,085 — were through C-section.

In its 2021 report on district hospitals, the central government’s policy think-tank NITI Aayog highlighted that Telangana has the second-highest rate of surgical deliveries in the country — 53.51 percent, which is more than double the national average of 20.8 per cent. It is topped only by Tamil Nadu, where 55.15 per cent of births are via C-section. Within Telangana, Karimnagar and Khammam reported the highest rate of C-sections, at 69.93 per cent and 65.42 per cent respectively.

The report outlines that while surgical deliveries can be necessary and “lifesaving” in some cases, they can also be harmful for mother and baby if performed without a sound medical reason. “Lack of awareness regarding the benefits of a normal delivery and fear of labour pains” were among the reasons listed for unnecessary C-sections.

As of May 2022, there are 102 private healthcare centres — ranging from small nursing homes to large hospitals — in the district. The data from government hospitals is from three major district-run hospitals, 18 rural primary healthcare centres (PHCs), and six urban PHCs. On average, every PHC sees one childbirth per month.

ThePrint spoke to district officials and medical professionals to understand the appeal of surgical deliveries in Karimnagar.

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