NEW YORK, Sep 07 (Reuters) -- Women whose babies are in breech position when labor begins are less likely to get pregnant again than women whose babies are in the normal head-first position, according to a study in the current issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
But women who suffer the miscarriage of a breech-positioned fetus, or the death of a newborn who presented in buttocks-first position, are just as likely to get pregnant again as women who deliver babies presenting in the normal position, the study's authors report.
These findings suggest that women who deliver a surviving breech-presentation infant are less likely to get pregnant again because the birth experience is "discouraging," and not because they have medical problems that interfere with subsequent pregnancy, write a team of Norwegian researchers. They analyzed data from Norwegian birth records of babies born between 1967 and 1994.
Delivery is considerably more difficult when the baby presents in breech position. Moreover, women who have one breech birth are at least four times more likely to have a subsequent breech birth than women whose babies present in head-first (vertex) position, the researchers report.
Among women whose infants presented in breech position, those who had cesarean deliveries were significantly less likely to get pregnant again than those who had vaginal births, report the researchers, Dr. Lorentz M. Irgens and colleagues at Aker University Hospital in Oslo. But the researchers also report that, "The subsequent pregnancy rate was lower after a cesarean delivery irrespective of presentation (of the infant)."
These results suggest that women whose babies present in breech position may benefit from counseling, Irgens and colleagues write.
"Thus, information, support, and reassurance regarding future pregnancies might help to reduce the discouraging effect of a breech delivery," they conclude.
SOURCE: Obstetrics and Gynecology 1998;92:345-350.
