BMJ 1996;313:817 (28 September)

Letters

Outcomes of breech presentations not diagnosed until labour need to be studied

EDITOR,--P J Danielian and colleagues report the long term outcome among infants delivered by the breech at term by the intended mode of delivery.1 I was surprised that the authors do not mention the group of fetuses in which breech presentation was not diagnosed until the women presented in labour.

The proportion of breech presentations diagnosed in labour varies in the published literature between 9% and 33%2 3 and is therefore not insignificant. As the paper does not describe this group separately it can be assumed only that most of the breech presentations that were diagnosed in labour were included in the "intended vaginal delivery" group and therefore that intended vaginal delivery is not the same as planned vaginal breech delivery.

A generally accepted aim of antenatal care is to detect malpresentation in order to offer external cephalic version and to assess the mode of delivery, the commonly held belief being . . . [Full text of this article]


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Relevant Article

Long term outcome by method of delivery of fetuses in breech presentation at term: population based follow up
P J Danielian, J Wang, and M H Hall
BMJ 1996 312: 1451-1453. [Abstract] [Full Text]

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