Evaluation should have included long term follow up of the mothers

BMJ 1996;313:817-818 (28 September)

Letters

Evaluation should have included long term follow up of the mothers

EDITOR,--We agree with the recommendations in P J Danielianand colleagues' paper and the accompanying editorial that alarge randomised controlled trial is required to determine whichis the safest and most acceptable mode of delivery in breechpresentation at term.¹ ² We are concerned, however, that thediscussion, particularly in the editorial, does not mentionthe need for long term follow up of the mother.

The authors of the editorial state that "increased maternalmorbidity is an inevitable consequence of abdominal delivery"on the basis of evidence from the Cochrane meta-analysis oftwo randomised controlled trials that compared the policy ofplanned caesarean section with that of planned vaginal birth.Both of these trials measured maternal morbidity by short termvariables such as blood transfusion, headache after spinal anaesthetic,wound infection, febrile morbidity, and length of stay in hospital.³⁴ These measures are extremely important, but longer term measuresof maternal . . . [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]