How useful are national caesarean section rates for monitoring quality of perinatal care? M Mathai World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland Linked article: This is a mini commentary on AJ Macfarlane. To view this article visit http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/14710528.13284. Published Online 6 March 2015. Recommendations for the organisation and provision of perinatal care worldwide were published after a meeting of mostly European and American experts 30 years ago (Lancet 1985;2(8452):436–7). Among these recommendations, one —’Countries with some of the lowest perinatal mortality rates in the world have caesarean section (CS) rates of