NEW figures suggest wide regional variations in the proportion of women who give birth through Caesarean section.

A new guide to maternity services reveals that Caesarean rates in some North hospitals are nearly 50 per cent higher than in neighbouring centres.

All hospitals in the Northern and Yorkshire region perform more than the World Health Organisation's guideline of between ten and 15 per cent for a developed country.

Figures suggest that - for reasons that are still not fully understood - at least 20,000 excess Caesarean operations take place in the UK every year, as surgical interventions in childbirth grow sharply.

Hospitals in Harrogate, South Shields, Middlesbrough and Darlington fill the top four places in a league table compiled by researchers.

Harrogate District Hospital heads the table, almost a quarter of women having Caesarean births. At the other end of the league table are hospitals in Northallerton, Stockton, Newcastle, Sunderland and Durham.

The prize for the lowest proportion of Caesareans goes to the Friarage Hospital, in Northallerton, which recorded 16.3 per cent, according to The Sunday Times Magazine's Good Birth Guide.

While the Northern and Yorkshire region is close to the English average for the overall number of Caesareans performed (20 per cent against an average of 20.6 per cent) it has the second lowest rate of emergency Caesareans (11.6 per cent), bettered only by the South-West.

Adele Collins, part of the team which compiled the guide, said: "The guide reveals that the type of delivery a woman experiences often has less to do with her wishes than with where she lives."

Karen Semianczuk, from Newcastle, who had two babies through Caesearean section, said: "It seems increasingly popular because women can plan when they can have their baby, but having an emergency operation was not that pleasant."

A spokesman for Harrogate District Hospital said they are in line with the average rate.