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. 2019 Apr 17:3:8.
doi: 10.18332/ejm/108297. eCollection 2019.

Maternal and neonatal outcomes for women giving birth after previous cesarean

Anastasia Charitou  1 , Dimitrios Charos  1 , Iliana Vamenou  1 , Victoria G Vivilaki  1
Affiliations

Maternal and neonatal outcomes for women giving birth after previous cesarean

Anastasia Charitou et al. Eur J Midwifery. .

Abstract

Introduction: Rising rates of caesarean section (CS) is an issue of particular concern. Recently, there has been research supporting Vaginal Births After Caesarean (VBAC), which is controversial. In Greece, over half of births in the country are by CS, placing Greece among countries with the highest CS rates. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence and the factors associated with VBACs and to compare the maternal/neonatal outcomes with a 'non-caesarean' control group.

Methods: The data were evaluated and retrospectively gathered on archived singleton births, from medical records of a midwifery-led team, between May 2006 and May 2013. The target group of the study included mothers with a previous CS, who had a second birth. The sample consisted of 71 VBAC women and 583 who had normal spontaneous vaginal delivery (NSVD) as the 'non-caesarean' control group.

Results: The duration of labour was longer for the VBACs compared with first-time mothers who gave birth naturally (for duration 481-720 min, 27% vs 10.3%, respectively), episiotomy was more common for VBAC (20.7% vs 7.9%), and epidural analgesia was more often for VBAC (68.4% vs 10%). The percentage of 1-min Apgar score in the range 0-7 in the VBAC group was 5%, and there was no significant difference in women who had NSVD (3.6%). The Apgar score in the 5th minute was always above 8 for both groups.

Conclusions: Severe maternal and neonatal complications are infrequent, and therefore the necessity arises for further continuous studies to ascertain the safety of VBAC.

Keywords: TOL; VBAC; Vaginal Birth after Cesarean; outcomes; repeat cesarean section; trial of labour.

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Conflict of interest statement

V.G. Vivilaki reports that she is the Editor-in-Chief of EJM journal and that there are no conflicts of interest with this current work. The rest of the authors also have completed and submitted an ICMJE form for disclosure of potential conflicts of interest and none was reported.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Type of childbirth
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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