OBJECTIVE The objective of our study was to test the hypothesis that the availability and selective use of STAN in conjunction with cardiotocography for intrapartum monitoring, lowers the incidence of operative deliveries for fetal distress. DESIGN Observational study. SETTING Delivery suite of the National University Hospital, Singapore. METHODS The data regarding intrapartum cesarean se...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the occurrence and nature of suboptimal intrapartum care in cases with metabolic acidosis in the newborn, and to estimate the degree to which this may be prevented. DESIGN Case-control study. Clinical audit. Setting Delivery units at two university hospitals in Sweden. POPULATION Out of 28 486 deliveries, 161 neonates > or =34 weeks of gestational age were born with me...

BACKGROUND Internationally, repeat caesarean sections make the largest contribution to overall caesarean section rates and inter-hospital variation has been reported. The aim of this study was to determine if casemix and hospital factors explain variation in hospital rates of repeat caesarean sections and whether these rates are associated with maternal and neonatal morbidity. METHODS This po...

The anesthesia ex utero intrapartum treatment (EXIT) procedure is a specialized surgical procedure used to deliver babies who have airway compression due to cystic adenomatoid malformation, bronchopulmonary sequestration, cervical teratomas, or other congenital conditions. EXIT is erroneously known as a routine cesarean section (CS), but is rather an extension of CS with discernible differences...

INTRODUCTION The change in obstetrical practices over the last decade in favor of trials of labor in patients with uterine scars has resulted in increased incidences of uterine ruptures. Although neither repeat cesarean delivery nor a trial of labor is risk free, evidence from a large multicenter study shows vaginal birth after the cesarean (VBAC) is associated with shorter hospital stays, fewe...

BACKGROUND Newborn deaths comprise nearly half of under-5 deaths in Ghana, despite the fact that skilled birth attendants (SBAs) are present at 68% of births, which implies that evidence-based care during labor, birth and the immediate postnatal period may be deficient. We assessed the effect of a low-dose, high-frequency (LDHF) training approach on long-term evidence-based skill retention amon...