Impact of caesareans researched

A woman's chance of a stillbirth is not increased after a previous Caesarean section, according to new research.

The findings, published in the BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, concluded that, contrary to findings of other recent research, the level of the mother's obesity, not a previous Caesarean section, may be a factor in stillbirths.

The study was carried out by researchers from the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada, because they were concerned that previous research had failed to account for the effect of maternal obesity which is associated with both Caesarean birth and stillbirth.

Dr Stephen Wood, from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, said: "Our study strongly suggests that previous Caesarean section does not increase the risk of stillbirth in subsequent pregnancies.

"Although previous research has made a link between the two, it is likely that maternal obesity played a part as it was not controlled for.

"Obesity has been a consistently observed risk factor for both stillbirth and Caesarean section. It has been difficult for investigators, including us, to adequately control for this factor as good anthropometric data is often not available in large perinatal databases.

"Indeed, we were limited to using maternal weight of 91kg (14st 4lb) or more as a cut-off for obesity; however this is more than other studies have done.

"As Caesarean section is increasingly common and stillbirth is a very important outcome, further research in this area is required."

The study included 157,929 second births with information obtained on demographic characteristics, pregnancy complications, mode of delivery and outcome of live or

In this analysis, previous Caesarean section did not demonstrate a statistically significant increase in stillbirth risk.

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