Breech Studies

Inappropriate use of randomized trials to evaluate complex phenomena: case study of vaginal breech delivery - "Randomized controlled trials have greatly improved the quality of evidence guiding clinical practice, but when applied to complex phenomena, they have important limitations."

Pregnancy outcome after successful external cephalic version for breech presentation at term. Am J Obstet Gynecol 1997;176:218-23. This article describes the risks and benefits of external cephalic version of a breech cited on PubMed

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Worldwide Trial to Assess Safety of Routine Cesarean for Breech

Routine cesarean section for breech presentation has been recommended over the last forty years. As a consequence, the rate of vaginal breech delivery has decreased sharply. In the United States, the rate of cesarean section for breech presentation rose from just 10 percent to nearly 80 percent in 15 years (1970-1985). On closer examination, however, it is clear that the association between breech presentation and perinatal mortality is due principally to the confounding variables of prematurity and congenital malformation. Traumatic injury and complications giving rise to birth asphyxia in a vaginal breech delivery are uncommon. The recommendations for routine cesarean section have therefore been made on the basis of imperfect data. The issue of vaginal delivery compared with abdominal delivery of the term breech pregnancy is currently being addressed in a a worldwide multicenter randomized controlled trial ("The Term Breech Trial"). -MIDIRS 9:1, March 1999 

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Term Breech Study: An International Multicentre Randomized Control Study "The study is about demystifying breech delivery and providing sound well thought out protocols for the management of a planned vaginal birth or planned caesarean section based on good quality research". Read Comments by Maggie Banks about this study.

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External Cephalic Version - ANDREW S. COCO, M.D., M.S., and STEPHANIE D. SILVERMAN, M.D.  Lancaster General Hospital, Lancaster, Pennsylvania

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Planned vaginal delivery versus elective caesarean section: a study of 705 singleton term breech presentations.

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Doctors need more training in delivering breech babies.-an article in the online version of the British Medical Journal discusses the single and most avoidable factor in causing stillbirths and deaths among breech babies.

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Breech birth may discourage later pregnancy -this study states that "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".

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Planned caesarean section versus planned vaginal birth for breech presentation at term: a randomized multicentre trial- this study can be read by going to the The Lancet and registering. Registration is free. Please note that home birth with a midwife has not been included.

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Obstetric Myths vs Research Realities by Henci Goer. Contains numerous studies regarding birthing breech. What she has to say about breech babies can be read here.

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Mode of Delivery for Breech Presentation - Here are some studies that discuss management of the breech presentation and the mode of delivery.

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Long term outcome by method of delivery of fetuses in breech presentation at term: population based follow up

Vaginal Breech Delivery Rates Vary by Hospital Type, Patient Ethnicity- A review of over 10,000 breech deliveries in California found that public hospitals had a higher percentage of vaginal breech deliveries than private non-teaching hospitals

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(Note: The following links are websites full of information that can be accessed using their search engine. Just type in "Breech".)

Cochrane Data Base- this is a data base where information regarding breech birth can be found.

PubMed - this link will take you to a page that has searched the site for all articles relating to breech presentation. Type in both "breech" and "breach" to obtain all information.