The Effect of Delivery Type on the Indices of Term Newborn Infants’ Umbilical Vein Blood Gas

Introduction: Caesarean section (also known as C-section or caesarean delivery) has undergone anenormous increase over the recent decades, particularly in Iran where the rate of C-section is five timeslarger than that of the global standards. Moreover, according to several studies, there is the possibility thatcaesarean delivery can affect umbilical vein blood gas. Accordingly, the present study was conductedaiming to examine the impact of delivery type on the indices of term newborn infants’ umbilical veinblood gas.Methods: The present cross-sectional study explored a total of 222 newborn infants born in ShahidMotahari Hospital, Marvdasht, Iran in 2015 based on three delivery-type groups, namely, natural delivery,general anesthesia-used caesarean and spinal anesthesia-used caesarean. Of all the infants, an amount of0.5cc umbilical vein blood was taken and then examined in terms of blood gases. The two groups werecompared with each other with regard to 1st and 5th minutes’ Apgar score, anesthesia duration as well asits influence on blood gases. The data was then analyzed using SPSS software.Findings: Mean and standard deviation values for Apgar score in natural delivery at the beginning ofbirth equaled 8.8 ± 0.59, suggesting a significant difference between natural delivery and other caesareangroups (P= 0.01). It should be noted that no significant difference was reported in infants’ umbilical veinblood in the two groups in terms of pH (P=0.08), PO2 (P=0.79) and PCO2 (P= 0.85). Likewise, there wasa significant difference in umbilical base excess of natural delivery and caesarean groups (P=0.03).Conclusion: Based on the research results, compared to infants in caesarean groups, those born naturallyenjoy higher Apgar score and base excess.

Keywords:

Apgar Score , Blood Gases , Caesarean , Natural Delivery , Umbilical Vein