Planned vaginal delivery of term breech remains an option – result of eight years experience at a single centre

Abstract

In order to compare the short term outcome of vaginal and abdominal delivery of babies with breech presentation at term at a single centre, a retrospective study of 299 women presenting with singleton normal breech fetuses at term between 1st January 1996 and 31st December 2003, at a tertiary referral centre, was conducted. The rates of perinatal mortality, neonatal mortality, serious neonatal morbidity and low Apgar scores of neonates delivered after either planned vaginal or planned abdominal delivery were compared. Among 299 women with singleton normal breech at term, 32.1% delivered vaginally and 67.9% had C/S. Successful planned vaginal delivery rate was 97.9%. There was no perinatal or neonatal death in either group and no significant difference in the rates of serious perinatal morbidity between the two groups. We concluded that planned vaginal delivery is associated with no significant adverse perinatal outcome and remains an option for selected term breech presentation.