Maternal and fetal complications in vaginal birth after cesarean

Abstract

Introduction: Vaginal birth after cesarean is one of the methods used to reduce the increasing number of cesarean sections. This study was performed with aim to evaluate maternal and fetal complications in women who had successful vaginal delivery after cesarean. Methods: This retrospective study was performed on 160 women who had successful vaginal delivery after one cesarean section with transverse uterine incision at Mashhad Omolbanin hospital in 2016-2018. Demographic data related to delivery and the infants' data were collected from the patients' records. Data was analyzed by SPSS software (version 11) Kolmogrov-Smirnov, Chi-square and t-test. p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Among 160 patients, 141 cases (88.12%) had successful normal vaginal delivery and 19 cases (11.88%) had cesarean section. The two groups of success and failure of normal delivery after cesarean section had no significant difference in terms of mean maternal age (p= 0.18), body mass (p=0.07), gestational age (p= 0.15) and distance from previous cesarean section (p=0.07). The bishop score less than 6 was significantly higher in the failure group than in the success group (p=0.02). In the failure group, postpartum hemorrhage (p= 0.03) and NICU admission (p=<0.001) were significantly higher. Conclusion: Vaginal delivery after cesarean is a safe delivery method and reduces maternal and fetal risks caused by repeated cesarean section.

Keywords

• cesarean section
• classical uterine incision
• vaginal delivery