Vaginal Delivery

Excerpt

Vaginal delivery is safest for the fetus and the mother when the newborn is full-term at the gestational age of 37 to 42 weeks. Vaginal delivery is preferred considering the morbidity and the mortality associated with operative cesarean births has increased over time. Approximately 80% of all singleton vaginal deliveries are at full-term via spontaneous labor, whereas 11% are preterm, and 10% are post-term. Of note, with the advent of operative delivery modalities and surgical delivery modalities, the number of patients who reach spontaneous labor has decreased over time, and the induction of labor has increased.

The labor leading to the delivery is divided into 3 stages, and each stage requires specific management. Complications arise during each of the three stages, which can lead to the conversion of the anticipated vaginal delivery to operative cesarean delivery. According to the latest published data, in the USA, in 2017, there were 3,855,500 births, and 68% (2,621,010) of those were vaginal deliveries. The preterm birth rate was 9.9%, and the population’s birth rate was 11.8 per 1000.