23/10/2024
Recent decades have brought an escalation in the overmedicalization of pregnancy and childbirth – a global
trend described as “too much, too soon” (41). This practice involves the inappropriate, unnecessary or routine
use of interventions without there being a clear need for them, based on the condition of the woman or her
newborn. Frequently over-used interventions include, for example, episiotomies, amniotomies, induced
labour, unnecessary caesarean sections and suctioning of clear amniotic fluid from newborns at birth
(48,59–61). Overmedicalization can result in adverse health outcomes (41,59–65) and can undermine women’s
inherent ability to give birth, leaving them feeling sidelined in their birthing process, which negatively affects
their childbirth experience (41,59,66). By overburdening already strained health workers, overmedicalization
can also result in poor quality of care and immediate, medium- and/or long-term unfavourable health
outcomes for women and newborns (41,59,62,63,66,67). It also increases the financial demands on health
systems (67) and out-of-pocket health expenditures for women and their families (68–71), which poses a
barrier to achieving UHC.