Infection following emergency Caesarean section was reduced significantly by changing certain hygienic procedures, i.e. cutting instead of shaving abdominal hair, reducing vaginal examinations prior to operation, swabbing the external genitalia with aqueous chlorhexidine gluconate, minimizing the traffic in the operating theatre and abandoning peroperative dilatation of the cervix. Wound infection was reduced from 5.6% to 5.1% and endometritis from 14.3% to 4.4%.