'Forceps, vacuum deliveries more traumatic than C-sections'

Deliveries with forceps and vacuum may cause greater trauma to mothers and babies as compared to cesarean section births, a new study has found.
Researchers from University of British Columbia (UBC) in Canada found that in deliveries that did not involve foetal distress, severe complications for the baby were 80 per cent higher following mid pelvic forceps and mid pelvic vacuum compared with cesarean delivery.
The rate of severe birth trauma was five to ten fold higher in deliveries by mid pelvic forceps and mid pelvic vacuum compared with cesarean delivery, researcher said.
They found that severe obstetric tearing occurred in 19 per cent of women delivered by mid pelvic forceps, 12 per cent of women delivered by mid pelvic vacuum, and 20 per cent of women that delivered using a combination of mid pelvic vacuum and forceps.

"Our study suggests that unless we improve our ability to select candidates for mid pelvic forceps and vacuum deliveries, or improve training in such deliveries, encouraging such delivery to reduce the cesarean delivery rate could increase rates of neonatal complications," said Giulia Muraca from UBC.
These complications include birth trauma, as well as maternal complications such as severe postpartum hemorrhage, and obstetric trauma such as tearing, Muraca said.

Researchers looked at at data on about 1,87,234 births in Canada, over 10 years. They included all mid pelvic live or stillbirths via forceps or vacuum and cesarean delivery between 37 and 41 weeks gestational age.

Of these, about 76,755 women needed intervention because of poor uterine contractions and 1,10,479 because of foetal distress.
The study was published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.