Perinatal outcomes of babies delivered by second-stage Caesarean section versus vacuum extraction in a resource-poor setting, Nigeria - a retrospective analysis

The use of bubble charts in analyzing the global second-stage cesarean delivery rates: a systematic review

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to systematically review the worldwide second-stage cesarean delivery rate concerning pre-second-stage cesarean delivery and assisted vaginal birth rates.

DATA SOURCES

PubMed, Medline Ovid, EBSCOhost, Embase, Scopus, and Google Scholar were queried from inception to February 2023, with the following terms: "full dilatation," "second stage," and "cesarean," with their word variations. Furthermore, an additional cohort of 353,434 cases from our recently published study was included.

STUDY ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

Only original studies that provided sufficient information on the number of pre-second-stage cesarean deliveries, second-stage cesarean deliveries, and vaginal births were included for the calculation of different modes of delivery. Systemic reviews, meta-analyses, or case reports were excluded.

METHODS

Study identification and data extraction were independently performed by 2 authors. Selected studies were categorized on the basis of parity, study period, and geographic regions for comparison.

RESULTS

A total of 25 studies were included. The overall pre-second-stage cesarean delivery rate, the second-stage cesarean delivery rate, and the second-stage cesarean delivery-to-assisted vaginal birth ratio were 17.94%, 2.65%, and 0.19, respectively. Only 5 studies described singleton, term, cephalic presenting pregnancies of nulliparous women, and their second-stage cesarean delivery rates were significantly higher than those studies with cohorts of all parity groups (4.50% vs 0.83%; P<.05). In addition, the second-stage cesarean delivery rate showed a secular increase across 2009 (0.70% vs 1.05%; P<.05). Moreover, it was the highest among African studies (5.14%) but the lowest among studies from East Asia and South Asia (0.94%). The distributions of second-stage cesarean delivery rates of individual studies and subgroups were shown with that of pre-second-stage cesarean delivery and assisted vaginal birth using the bubble chart.

CONCLUSION

The overall worldwide pre-second-stage cesarean delivery rate was 17.94%, the second-stage cesarean delivery rate was 2.65%, and the second-stage cesarean delivery-to-assisted vaginal birth ratio was 0.19. The African studies had the highest second-stage cesarean delivery rate (5.14%) and second-stage cesarean delivery-to-assisted vaginal birth ratio (1.88), whereas the studies from East Asia and South Asia were opposite (0.94% and 0.11, respectively).

Factors related to the practice of vacuum-assisted birth: findings from provider interviews in Kigoma, Tanzania

Background

Vacuum-assisted birth is not widely practiced in Tanzania but efforts to re-introduce the procedure suggest some success. Few studies have targeted childbirth attendants to learn how their perceptions of and training experiences with the procedure affect practice. This study explores a largely rural cohort of health providers to determine associations between recent practice of the procedure and training, individual and contextual factors.

Methods

A cross-sectional knowledge, attitudes and practice survey of 297 providers was conducted in 2019 at 3 hospitals and 12 health centers that provided comprehensive emergency obstetric care. We used descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression to model the probability of having performed a vacuum extraction in the last 3 months.

Results

Providers were roughly split between working in maternity units in hospitals and health centers. They included: medical doctors, assistant medical officers (14%); clinical officers (10%); nurse officers, assistant nurse officers, registered nurses (32%); and enrolled nurses (44%). Eighty percent reported either pre-service, in-service vacuum extraction training or both, but only 31% reported conducting a vacuum-assisted birth in the last 3 months. Based on 11 training and enabling factors, a positive association with recent practice was observed; the single most promising factor was hands-on solo practice during in-service training (66% of providers with this experience had conducted vacuum extraction in the last 3 months). The logistic regression model showed that providers exposed to 7–9 training modalities were 7.8 times more likely to have performed vacuum extraction than those exposed to fewer training opportunities (AOR = 7.78, 95% CI: 4.169–14.524). Providers who worked in administrative councils other than Kigoma Municipality were 2.7 times more likely to have conducted vacuum extraction than their colleagues in Kigoma Municipality (AOR = 2.67, 95% CI: 1.023–6.976). Similarly, providers posted in a health center compared to those in a hospital were twice as likely to have conducted a recent vacuum extraction (AOR = 2.11, 95% CI: 1.153–3.850), and finally, male providers were twice as likely as their female colleagues to have performed this procedure recently (AOR = 1.95, 95% CI: 1.072–3.55).

Conclusions

Training and location of posting were associated with recent practice of vacuum extraction. Multiple training modalities appear to predict recent practice but hands-on experience during training may be the most critical component. We recommend a low-dose high frequency strategy to skills building with simulation and e-learning. A gender integrated approach to training may help ensure female trainees are exposed to critical training components.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12884-021-03738-0.