Health Minister Memişoğlu's statement on cesarean births: "It's a surgery, not a method of delivery."

25.04.2025 00:21

The Minister of Health, Kemal Memişoğlu, made a statement regarding normal and cesarean births during a live broadcast, which sparked significant discussions. Memişoğlu said, "Natural birth is normal birth. When necessary, and when it is medically required, of course, surgery will be performed. The average cesarean rate in the world is 15%."

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Health Minister Kemal Memişoğlu made statements regarding the agenda during a live broadcast on Habertürk. He used striking expressions especially about the long-debated normal birth and cesarean birth. Minister Memişoğlu said, "Some of our friends may be inflating this issue with perceptions or policies that will really harm this country. The natural one is normal birth. When necessary, when it is medically required, of course, surgery will be performed. The cesarean rate is on average 15% in the world. Only 1 or 2 out of 10 births are surgeries. In our country, 6.1 out of 10 births are by cesarean."

Here are Minister Memişoğlu's statements:

We are the Ministry of Health, not the Ministry of Illness. We are obliged to explain what is healthy. My ministry is responsible for teaching the society what is beneficial regarding health and making warnings. I am also fighting against smoking. When I say smoking is harmful to health, am I interfering in the lives of smokers? When I say lose weight, am I interfering in people's freedom? Birth is a miracle. It is truly physiological and miraculous. The fetus staying in the womb, feeding, entering that path, and coming out after maturing in every way when the time comes is what we call normal birth in layman's terms. The same team, Sivasspor, has a banner about breast cancer from 2 years ago. I am pleased with this discussion. We will not implement any policy that forcibly intervenes in the life of any woman or child. Even thinking about this is pathological thinking. Everyone is free in their life within the framework of the law. I am obliged to say what is right, what is healthy, and to plan and produce policies regarding this. We are not insulting anyone there. Some of our friends may be inflating this issue with perceptions or policies that will really harm this country. The natural one is normal birth. When necessary, when it is medically required, of course, surgery will be performed. The cesarean rate is on average 15% in the world. Only 1 or 2 out of 10 births are surgeries. In our country, 6.1 out of 10 births are by cesarean. A child born by cesarean may not have developed its lungs sufficiently, and its contact with the mother may be inadequate. In October 2024, we started a campaign under the auspices of Mrs. Emine Erdoğan called the normal birth action plan. We have completed 6 of our 10 action plans. We have increased the effectiveness of midwives and changed the legislation. We are establishing mother schools in all hospitals. The pregnancy process for mothers is a challenging process. We need to support the mother. We have also financially supported the midwives working in maternity hospitals. We are developing a mobile application called "Motherhood Journey" to provide all the information that mothers want to learn during the motherhood process, starting from pregnancy until the child turns 2 years old, through an internet application.

"NORMAL BIRTH IS HEALTHY FOR THE BABY AND THE MOTHER"

We have midwifery schools in our health life centers. There are currently 286. We will build 100 more. From physical therapy to dentistry. Everyone, including dietitians and child development specialists, works there. Everything is done for free, including cancer screenings. Perhaps our mistake is that we could not explain it well to the society. Unfortunately, cesarean sections are more common in our private hospitals. It is over 61%. In the public sector, it is lower, around 30%. Turkey has a very good private sector, world-class. Our live birth rate is decreasing. We do not interfere in anyone's private life. I clearly state that normal birth is the healthy option for both the baby and the mother.

"I AM A CESAREAN BORN"

We do not think about restricting women's freedom. We are concerned with health. Medical indication, which we call medical necessity, is one thing; preference is another. Our recommendation is that in cases where normal birth should occur, the mother should prefer what is beneficial and healthy for her and the baby under natural conditions. A cesarean is not natural. I was born by cesarean in 1966. There was bleeding; would my mother survive, or would the child survive? Everything that has a medical indication must be done. The child grows in the womb, passes through the vagina, and normal birth occurs. In the development of the lungs and cells, in the relationship with the mother, the hormones that produce milk in the mother, and the happiness hormones in the brain, the natural path is the way.

"PLANNED CESAREAN SECTIONS CANNOT BE PERFORMED IN MEDICAL CENTERS"

Medical centers are places where there are no beds for overnight stays and where day procedures are performed. They are clinics. There are no normal patient beds; there are observation beds. We said that emergency cesarean sections can be performed. Clinics have observation capabilities. Emergency cesarean is something else. In a planned cesarean, you need to keep the mother and child together for 48 hours. We said that planned cesarean sections cannot be performed. We said that planned liver surgeries cannot be performed. These are not hospitals; they are medical centers. You cannot perform planned cesarean sections with drums and flutes in medical centers.

"OUR GOAL IS TO REDUCE CESAREAN SECTIONS TO 20%"

There is no such thing as banning the treatment of a hospital in health. We work with scientific data. Normal birth is physiological, it is natural. If there is a medical necessity, the child can be delivered by surgery, which is called cesarean. Emergency cesarean sections can be performed in medical centers, but planned cesarean sections must be performed in hospitals for medical necessity. We need to be reasonable, we need to be objective. Everyone is questioning what others are doing. First, we need to ask ourselves what we have done. There is only one right. I am trying to reduce cesarean sections as much as I can. Our goal is to set a path that will not exceed 20%. We are trying to encourage normal birth by educating and convincing our expectant mothers and fathers, explaining what the right thing is. This is also the case in scientific environments around the world. If you are performing cesarean sections at a rate much higher than the world average, this is not a healthy practice. If I say smoking is unhealthy, I can similarly say that normal birth is natural. I tell them to brush their teeth, why? So that their teeth do not decay. I tell overweight patients to 'lose weight.' We lose 17 million people worldwide due to circulatory system diseases. Sırrı Süreyya Önder is alive today thanks to the infrastructure of the private hospital in the health system. We are talking about a country that has the human power to connect a heart that is not working in the hospital to a machine and change all its arteries from end to end. Moreover, this is a private hospital. I do not expect thanks; as doctors and healthcare workers, we can examine people 1 billion times a year in our universities, private sector, and state hospitals, and we can perform over 800,000 surgeries. We provide services in very high-level hospitals in the world, which we call city hospitals.

"FOR ME, THERE IS ONLY ONE RIGHT"

This year has been declared the Year of Family. There are many reasons for the decline in birth rates. Socio-economic factors, urbanization, etc. The Ministry of Family is working on all of them. We are also trying to provide support. Children and siblings are very important. Generally, if people are working, they have only 1 child. Our Ministry of Family, with the instruction of our esteemed President, has also provided financial support.

I have three children, so I speak comfortably. I have one sister and I am one of two siblings. Siblings are very important in life. I say let's not leave your children without siblings. I believe that the family structure is very important. The foundation of a society is formed by the family. If you don't have children, you cannot be a family; you are just a couple. As long as we don't speak the truth, the pressure from the neighborhood comes upon us, and falsehoods circulate. Social media has become an area where everyone is involved. We say what is true, no matter if they criticize us. For me, there is only one truth. I work for the sake of Allah. How can I serve this nation, this country? This society needs rationality and truths.