Analyzing support of postnatal transition in term infants after c-section

Whereas good data are available on the resuscitation of infants, little is known regarding support of postnatal transition in low-risk term infants after c-section. The present study was performed to describe current delivery room (DR) management of term infants born by c-section in our institution by analyzing videos that were recorded within a quality assurance program.

DR- management is routinely recorded within a quality assurance program. Cross-sectional study of videos of term infants born by c-section. Videos were analyzed with respect to time point, duration and number of all medical interventions. Study period was between January and December 2012.

186 videos were analyzed. The majority of infants (73%) were without support of postnatal transition. In infants with support of transition, majority of infants received respiratory support, starting in median after 3.4 minutes (range 0.4-14.2) and lasting for 8.8 (1.5-28.5) minutes. Only 33% of infants with support had to be admitted to the NICU, the remaining infants were returned to the mother after a median of 13.5 (8-42) minutes. A great inter- and intra-individual variation with respect to the sequence of interventions was found.

The study provides data for an internal quality improvement program and supports the benefit of using routine video recording of DR-management. Furthermore, data can be used for benchmarking with current practice in other centers.