External cephalic version in breech presentations at term: comparison of maternal and perinatal outcome with normal pregnancies

Background: To study the maternal and perinatal outcome after successful external cephalic version in term breech pregnancies and to compare the same with normal deliveries with cephalic presentation.Methods: Singleton term breech pregnancies were included in Group I; in which ECV was attempted. Out of this, pregnancies with successful ECV (Subgroup I) were compared with Group II comprising of two term normal pregnancies delivering in labour room immediately after delivery of every woman who had successful ECV. Maternal, labour and perinatal parameters were compared between Subgroup and Group II. Results: The two groups were comparable with respect to maternal age and gestational age. There were more multigravidae in both groups. There were more labour inductions in Subgroup. 83.3% women in study group and 95.8% women in control group had spontaneous vaginal deliveries. There were no perinatal deaths in either group. No serious maternal complications related to version were noted.Conclusions: This study shows that ECV does not adversely affect the maternal and perinatal outcome; although larger studies are required to confirm this. ECV may be more successful in multigravidae with flexed breech presentations. The procedure should probably be practiced regularly to improve the success rate