PONE-D-23-29508Caesarean section delivery rates and associated factors in a faith-based referral Hospital in Ghana: A retrospective analysis.PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Amoah,

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PLOS ONE

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: 1. The prevalence and indications for undergoing CS birth have already been explored in many studies and established. There is a lack of novelty in this study.

2. The study design may be written as a retrospective study design instead of a cross-sectional retrospective.

3. correct as Nonprobability purposive sampling,- not nonprobable sampling

4. The study setting must specify the delivery rate and delivery load with labour facilities instead of giving other general information.

5. The sample size calculation was not mentioned in the study.

6.Table information to be corrected as n, % instead of Freq. Percent

7.why only Neonatal Outcomes are collected, and moreover no such objectives are mentioned related to this information?

8.Indications for referral of baby to NICU-also not a part of your study objective

Reviewer #2: Dear Authors,

Thankyou for your submission.

The manuscript is simple and easy to understand. Discussion chapter is well handled. However, there are few grammatical errors that need revision and few concerns that needs to be addressed.

1. Kindly ensure the spelling of a particular word remains the same throughout. for e.g. (Caesarean)there are two different

spellings used.

2. (36)in abstract should be failed induction instead of filed.

3. (172-176) grammar- tense need to be corrected. Kindly ensure the explanation is in one particular tense( there is a mix

of past and present tense).

3. (185-194) statistical data needs revision. Follow one method, either roundup the numbers or place the details in decimal

s throughout.

4. (189) the stats mentioned here don't match the one projected in the table.

5. (200-201) Statistics needs revision

6. (210) should be ruptured uterus

7. (250) table doesn't reflect all the factors

8. Regarding the comprehensive anonymization process for removing personally identifiable information

such as names, addresses, and identification numbers from the dataset, is there a established protocol?. if yes, who is

involved in segregating and hiding the identity?. Is the person aware of the study to be undertaken?

9. Were birth injuries in newborn taken into consideration?

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Reviewer #1: Yes: Dharitri Swain

Reviewer #2: No

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Caesarean section delivery rates and associated factors in a faith-based referral Hospital in Ghana: A retrospective analysis.

PONE-D-23-29508R1

Dear Dr. Amoah,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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Kind regards,

Sunita Panda, PhD

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: Dear Authors,

I am glad to receive the corrections on the stated observations. All the comments made have been constructively revised. Though there is not much novelty in the subject, it has definitely created a database for specific area that lacked the information and for which the study was intended.

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: Yes: Dharitri Swain

Reviewer #2: Yes: Prof. Delphina Mahesh Gurav

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