Table 1. Meta-analysis of studies on acute maternal complications associated with cesarean section without clinical indication.

Outcome	Effect estimate	95%CI	Weight (%)	p^b
Postpartum infection
Allen et al. ¹ (2003)	2.2	1.08–4.45	21.71
Koroukian ¹⁹ (2004)	4.07	3.71–4.46	31.69	< 0.001
Allen et al. ² (2006)	4.87	2.28–10.37	20.69
Farchi et al. ¹⁴ (2010)	1.46	0.88–2.39	25.9
Group effect	2.83	1.58–5.06	100
Hemorrhage
Allen et al. ¹ (2003)	0.60	0.40–0.90	5.17
Koroukian ¹⁹ (2004)	0.51	0.462–0.56	87.94	0.146
Allen et al. ² (2006)	0.72	0.50–1.02	6.89
Group effect	0.52	0.48–0.57	100
Maternal death
Souza et al. ²⁷ (2010)
Antepartum cesarean	not estimated^a
Intrapartum cesarean	3.21	0.78–13.20	11.41
Kamilya et al. ¹⁸ (2010)				0.141
Antepartum cesarean	1.73	0.80–3.72	38.77
Intrapartum cesarean	4.86	2.47–9.56	49.82
Group effect	3.10	1.92–5.00	100
Blood transfusion
Allen et al. ¹ (2003)	0.70	0.19–2.57	10.53
Koroukian ¹⁹ (2004)	1.86	1.37–2.51	21.13	< 0.001
Allen et al. ² (2006)	1.85	0.51–6.68	10.68
Souza et al. ²⁷ (2010)
Antepartum cesarean	1.79	0.91–3.52	17.18
Intrapartum cesarean	3.70	2.24–6.10	19.20
Farchi et al. ¹⁴ (2010)	0.77	0.58–1.02	21.28
Group effect	1.57	0.88–2.81	100

^a No cases of maternal death in the group.

^b Chi-square of heterogeneity.