Pregnant women who opt for private maternity care are twice as likely as public patients to have a planned caesarean section.

Around one-in-five private maternity patients had a scheduled caesarean compared to just under one in 10 public patients, according to a study of an Irish maternity hospital patient population of 30,000 women.

Twenty-one per cent of private patients had a scheduled (as opposed to an emergency) caesarean compared to just 8.9 per cent of publicly-funded patients, the research found.

The disparity between public and private was particularly marked in women who gave birth previously by C-section.

The private patients were usually older, better educated and better-off financially than public patients.

However, the different rate of caesarean between the private and public patients could not just be explained by age and medical conditions, according to the study.

The researchers, from TCD, speculated that private patients may be provided with greater choice in relation to having a planned caesarean.

The research is published in BMJ Open.