Authors:
Einarsdóttir K; Haggar FA; Stock S; Gunnell AS; Stanley FJ
Authors notes:
PLoS ONE. 2013;8(4) e61699
Keywords:
Pregnancy, Assisted delivery, adverse outcomes, neonatal resuscitation, vaginal delivery
Abstract:
Mothers delivering as private patients in Australia have a high rate of assisted deliveries, which could lead to adverse infant outcomes in this group of patients.
We investigated whether the risk of adverse infant outcomes after assisted deliveries was different for mothers admitted as public or private patients for delivery, when compared with unassisted deliveries.
Mothers delivering as private patients had an increased risk of assisted vaginal delivery compared with public patients.
Compared with unassisted vaginal deliveries, assisted deliveries were associated with increased risk of Apgar scores at five minutes below 7, neonatal resuscitation and admission to special care nursery.
The increased risk of neonatal resuscitation was higher for mothers admitted as private patients for delivery than public patients.
Our results suggested that the high risk of neonatal resuscitation following assisted vaginal deliveries compared to unassisted is higher in private patients than public patients.
Whether this phenomenon is due to the twofold higher rate of assisted vaginal deliveries in this group of patients or a higher rate of fetal indications for assisted vaginal delivery remains to be answered.