Ischemia-modified albumin (IMA) is a sensitive biomarker of cardiac ischemia. Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) may imply fetal hypoxia, resulting in blood flow centralization in favour of vital organs (brain, heart, adrenals--"brain sparing effect"). Based on the latter, we hypothesized that cord blood IMA levels should not differ between IUGR and appropriate-for-gestational-age (AGA) ful...

only marginally increased among women undergoing a trial of labor2 than among those undergrant an elective repeat cesarean section (0.4% vs 0.2% OR=2.1), with a significant decrease in need for transfusion (OR=0.57) or hysterectomy (OR=0.39), has led authorities to encourage vaginal birth after cesarean3. A group of investigators concluded4 that among women with a previously scarred uterus, ind...

A review of 251 cervical cerclage procedures in 205 women over a 7.5-year period was conducted to compare the success rate and morbidity of the Shirodkar and McDonald techniques. Fetal survival rate was 19% before 139 elective McDonald operations and 20% before 63 elective Shirodkar procedures. Fetal survival was 78% after elective McDonald operations and 87% after elective Shirodkar procedures...

BACKGROUND When a woman has had a previous caesarean birth, there are two options for her care in a subsequent pregnancy: planned elective repeat caesarean or planned vaginal birth. While there are risks and benefits for both planned elective repeat caesarean birth and planned vaginal birth after caesarean, current sources of information are limited to non-randomised cohort studies. Studies des...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether the variation in unadjusted rates of caesarean section derived from routine data in NHS trusts in England can be explained by maternal characteristics and clinical risk factors. DESIGN A cross sectional analysis using routinely collected hospital episode statistics was performed. A multiple logistic regression model was used to estimate the likelihood of women h...

A birth cohort study of 4912 Brazilian infants showed that the incidence and duration of breast feeding for children delivered vaginally and for those born by elective caesarean section were similar. Those delivered by emergency caesarean section, however, were not breast fed for as long. This difference persisted after adjustment for confounding variables.

Physiologic events in the last few weeks of pregnancy coupled with the onset of spontaneous labor are accompanied by changes in the hormonal milieu of the fetus and its mother, resulting in preparation of the fetus for neonatal transition. Rapid clearance of fetal lung fluid is a key part of these changes, and is mediated in large part by transepithelial sodium reabsorption through amiloride-se...

OBJECTIVE To estimate the maternal puerperal morbidity in elective and emergent cesareans in twins. STUDY DESIGN We evaluated postpartum complications among patients who underwent elective cesarean birth for twin pregnancy. This group was compared to matched singletons and to emergent cesareans in twins. RESULTS During the period September 1994-March 2006 there were 299 (47.4%) elective and...