[Cesarean sections as a biopolitical expression of birth: The case of Neuquén province, Argentina].

Cesarean sections continue to increase globally regardless of international recommendations and evidence of their risks when not medically indicated. This study characterizes the time-trend of birth indicators in the province of Neuquén, Argentina, through the perspective of the biopolitics of birth, which understands the cesarean section not merely as a surgical technique, but as a complex device, a biopolitical technology that acts simultaneously on multiple levels. A time-trend analysis was conducted using provincial administrative records, reconstructing indicators of birth rate, infant mortality, and delivery mode from 1970 to 2022. For the period 2011 and 2022, the relationship between changes over time in the cesarean section rate according to socioeconomic and healthcare variables was studied using generalized linear models. The results show a sustained increase in cesarean sections - from 20% in 1995 to 50% in 2022 - in a context marked by declining birth rates and infant mortality, along with patterns that vary according to educational level, age of the pregnant people, type of healthcare facility, and timing of births. These findings suggest that the rise in cesarean sections can be interpreted as part of a broader process of regulating and standardizing modes of giving birth, in which the cesarean section is configured as a technology that contributes to producing predictability and establish standards regarding when and how birth should occur, thereby shaping subjectivities that reshape the social and symbolic conditions of birth.