A 10 year comparative study of caesarean deliveries using the Robson 10 group classification system in a university hospital in Austria.

ObjectiveThe Robson ten group classification system is used as a global standard for assessing, monitoring and comparing caesarean delivery (CD) rates within and between maternity services. Our objective was to compare the changes of CD rates at our institution between the years 2008-2010 and 2017-2019 using the Robson ten group classification system.Study designData was collected retrospectively and all women were classified using the obstetric concepts and parameters described in the Robson ten group classification system.ResultsDuring 2008-2010 7,832 deliveries were performed, increasing to 9,490 in 2017-2019. The CD rate also increased from 29.1% to 32.2% (pConclusionThe biggest contributors to the CD rate in our hospital remain multiparous women at term with a previous CD. The CD rates, as well as the overall size of this group, keep rising, resulting in a need to establish more effective ways to motivate women with one previous CD towards vaginal birth after caesarean delivery (VBAC). Furthermore, the CD rate in preterm deliveries is increasing and approaching 50%. This illustrates the need to discuss whether CD is the appropriate mode of delivery in half of the preterm infants

Disturbed Cardiorespiratory Adaptation in Preeclampsia: Return to Normal Stress Regulation Shortly after Delivery?

Women with pregnancies complicated by preeclampsia appear to be at increased risk of metabolic and vascular diseases in later life. Previous research has also indicated disturbed cardiorespiratory adaptation during pregnancy. The aim of this study was to follow up on the physiological stress response in preeclampsia several weeks postpartum. A standardized laboratory test was used to illustrate potential deviations in the physiological stress responding to mildly stressful events of the kind and intensity in which they regularly occur in further everyday life after pregnancy. Fifteen to seventeen weeks postpartum, 35 women previously affected by preeclampsia (19 mild, 16 severe preeclampsia), 38 women after uncomplicated pregnancies, and 51 age-matched healthy controls were exposed to a self-relevant stressor in a standardized stress-reactivity protocol. Reactivity of blood pressure, heart rate, stroke index, and systemic vascular resistance index as well as baroreceptor sensitivity were analyzed. In addition, the mutual adjustment of blood pressure, heart rate, and respiration, partitioned for influences of the sympathetic and the parasympathetic branches of the autonomic nervous system, were quantified by determining their phase synchronization. Findings indicated moderately elevated blood pressure levels in the nonpathological range, reduced stroke volume, and elevated systemic vascular resistance in women previously affected by preeclampsia. Despite these moderate abnormalities, at the time of testing, women with previous preeclampsia did not differ from the other groups in their physiological response patterns to acute stress. Furthermore, no differences between early, preterm, and term preeclampsia or mild and severe preeclampsia were observed at the time of testing. The findings suggest that the overall cardiovascular responses to moderate stressors return to normal in women who experience a pregnancy with preeclampsia a few weeks after delivery, while the operating point of the arterial baroreflex is readjusted to a higher pressure. Yet, their regulation mechanisms may remain different