India, Jan. 17 -- Delhi has seen a shift toward private hospitals for childbirth, with their share of deliveries rising by over 10 percentage points in two years, according data from the Delhi Statistical Handbook, 2025.

In 2022-23, 19.7% of the city's institutional births occurred in private facilities - private hospitals conducted 49,940 deliveries (including Caesarean-section, or C-section) out of the 253,498 total births.

This proportion rose to 22.6% (58,918 out of the total of 261,217) in 2023-24 and jumped to 30.2% (79,851 of the city's 264,394 births) in 2024-25, meaning nearly one in three hospital births now takes place in the private sector.

Health experts say the trend points to a growing reliance on private maternity care,...