Can glove change help reduce the costs and improve the outcomes of caesarean births?
More and more women are giving birth by caesarean. The procedure accounted for 21.1% of global births in 2021 and is forecast to reach 29.0% by 2030. At 41.4%, the current rate of caesareans in the English NHS is almost twice the global average and is increasing steadily every year.
While caesarean births are generally safe, like any surgery they carry risks — of which surgical site infection (SSI) is the most common. Although most infections are superficial and occur after discharge from hospital, they can still incur significant costs due to extended community midwife visits, GP visits and antibiotic prescribing. Deeper and more severe infections can require extended hospital stays or readmission, increasing the burden on maternity services and workforces that may already be under significant pressure.
One way that maternity services are helping reduce SSIs is by implementing a ‘bundle’ of evidence-based practices that clinical trials have shown to be effective at preventing infections. These practices can include antibiotic prophylaxis, antiseptic skin preparation and closing the skin with subcutaneous sutures instead of staples.
A less well known but very effective intervention for preventing infections is glove change. A recent systematic review and meta-analysis has demonstrated that obstetric teams that change their gloves after placental delivery and before wound closure can achieve a 59 per cent reduction in the incidence of post-caesarean SSIs. In my latest study I’ve collaborated with Health Innovation West of England, Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust and Mölnlycke Health Care to analyse the impact this could have on the budget and capacity of a typical NHS maternity service, and on the English NHS as a whole, if it was adopted as a standard practice.
Our budget impact analysis showed us that:
A maternity service performing around 1,600 caesareans annually could save over £50,000 a year through reductions in community midwife post-natal visits and hospital readmissions
Local GPs would also see meaningful reductions in the number of appointments and antibiotic prescriptions
Extrapolated across the whole of England, glove change could save the NHS more than £45 million over 5 years and substantially reduce the workloads of community midwives.
Neither the World Health Organization nor the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence presently recommend changing gloves before wound closure. But given that caesarean births are more expensive and have worse perinatal outcomes than natural births, shouldn’t this now change? As our study shows, glove change is just one important way that maternity services can deliver more value-based obstetric care.
Stanberry B, Jordan L, Pullyblank A, Hargreaves J. Changing gloves during caesarean birth: impact on maternity service budgets and capacity. J Hosp Infect. 2025 Nov 13: S0195-6701(25)00354-8. DOI: 10.1016/j.jhin.2025.10.033.
