[The effect of preventive cesarean section in breech presentation on perinatal mortality]

This study is based upon 1229 infants delivered from breech presentations who were investigated for the influence of the prophylactic Caesarean section carried out with primiparae after their 36th week of pregnancy in 1972, on perinatal mortality. The periods under report, i. e., 1966 to 1971 and 1972 to 1975, were compared with one another. The incidence of Caesarean sections carried out in breech presentations increased from 11.6% to 52.2%. With a premature birth rate of 22.1% and 20.9%, respectively, the uncleaned perinatal mortality decreased from 109.2% to 96.5%, whereas the cleaned one dropped from 73.3% to 64.2%. As to mature infants delivered vaginally or by Caesarean section, there was no significant difference in death rates. The worse prognosis for breech presentation infants given birth by pluriparae could be confirmed. The high portion of underweight infants amounting to 78.0% and 82.9%, respectively, in the total number of perinatal deaths illustrates the main problem of the breech presentation births.