ALMOST a third of babies are now born by caesarean section in Scotland, new figures have revealed.

Midwives have renewed their call for an investigation into the nation's c-section rate in the wake of the figures, describing some of the birth trends as "a cause for real concern".

However, Scotland's Chief Medical Officer Dr Catherine Calderwood, who worked as an obstetrician and gynaecologist, pointed out the latest data also shows a fall in the rate of stillbirths.

She said Scotland has been encouraging expectant mothers to seek help if they feel changes in their baby's movements and issued new advice to staff on how best to look after them and their unborn child.

This, she said, may have resulted in more young babies being delivered by c-section in order to save their lives.

While it has not been studied, she said this, along with the well known triggers of more mums being older or overweight, may have contributed to higher c-section figures.

Back in the mid-1970s, 75 per cent of babies were born without any medical intervention in Scotland. This has now dropped to 56.3 per cent. Meanwhile the proportion of births carried out by c-section has climbed from less than 10 per cent a year to 31.1 per cent.

Jackie Mitchell, national officer for the Royal College of Midwives in Scotland, said there had been a number of improvements in the health of mums and babies including fewer pregnant women smoking and fewer premature births. However, she added that the college was concerned by the rising c-section rate. Ms Mitchell said: "While some are needed for medical reasons we need to know why there has been such a large increase.

“Earlier this year the RCM called for an investigation by the Scottish Government into this issue and also asked NHS boards in Scotland to account for high rates of caesareans. This call remains and answers are needed."

The new figures, published by the Information Services Division of the Scottish NHS, show that of the 53,222 women who delivered in 2014-15, 25,891 - almost 50% - were overweight or obese. This is up on last year. The number of mothers over the age of 35 is not higher than ever before, but more than 51% are over 30 compared to less than 20% 40 years ago.

Dr Calderwood said: "Women are having their babies at an older age, we know that's associated with a reduction in spontaneous delivery rates. There are also more overweight and obese women giving birth, in line with women in the rest of society. That is a risk for c-section and it is a risk for going past their (due) dates."

She said in her work as an obstetrician she did not feel that doctors were choosing to operate because they were more cautious than they used to be or afraid of litigation if a natural birth went wrong.

However, she highlighted a drive in Scotland to reduce the stillbirth rate by 15% by the end of this year and said the latest figures, which show the rate for the financial year to March 2015 revealed a reduction in the region of 18%.

"We are rescuing babies who previously have been stillborn," she said. "Undoubtedly some of those small, growth-restricted, babies for obstetric, clinical reasons would have been delivered by c-section because it would not have been right to put a small, struggling baby through labour because that could be dangerous."

She said Scotland's success on stillbirths would be highlighted at a conference in America before the end of the year.

Asked about investigating the c-section rate in more depth, she said the vast majority of countries in the developed world were seeing the same trend.

She said: "I do not think Scotland's rise is something shocking or surprising or different from other countries." She later added:" The real question for me is what is the correct rate. We do not know the answer to that... If we have a better outcome for mothers and babies, certainly as a mother I think that is what we should be aiming for."