The incidence of prolonged pregnancy in a Greek District Obstetrics & Gynaecology department: the respective roles of General Practitioners and Obstetrics Specialists

Panagopoulos, P. and Samolis, Sofoklis and Patsouras, K. and Papastefanou, Ioannis and Alevizos, Alevizos and Kassanos, Dimitrios (2009) The incidence of prolonged pregnancy in a Greek District Obstetrics & Gynaecology department: the respective roles of General Practitioners and Obstetrics Specialists. Giornale italiano di ostetricia e ginecologia, 31 (4). pp. 191-195. ISSN 1971-1433

Preview

PDF article_(4).pdf - Published Version Download (540kB)

Abstract

To assess some aspects and the incidence of post-term pregnancies (PTP) delivered in our Department from 01/01/1991 to 31/12/2002 and to indicate the possible ways in which the General Practitioner could contribute in order to improve health care outcomes. Patients and Methods. We studied the data from the Delivery Room registry of the Obstetric and Gynecologic Department of “Tzaneio” General Hospital of Piraeus. The last menstrual period was used for the estimation of gestational age. All women with prolonged pregnancy (76), were from the Attica region (which has about 5 million inhabitants), 53 of them were residents of rural areas, 16 were residents of the suburbs and 7 were residents of Athens. None of them had consulted an Ob/gyn or a GP until the last few weeks of pregnancy. Fetal and maternal data regarding the pregnancy outcome were evaluated, including vacuum delivery, caesarean section rate, and infant’s gender, number of previous gestations, birth weight, macrosomia, antepartum, intrapartum and postpartum death. Results. PTP neonates (76), were delivered after 42 weeks of gestation among 7818 total deliveries, a percentage of 0.97%. The median age of women was 25 years of age. Of 76 neonates, 42 were born with vaginal delivery, 9 with vacuum extraction and 25 with caesarean section. The distribution of sex was 34 boys and 42 girls. The median gestational age was 42 weeks and 3 days. The median birth weight was 3,518.28 g. We had no stillbirths and we had one early neonatal death. Conclusions. Less than 1% (0.97%) of post-term pregnancies is a very low percentage. This may represent the monitoring of cases reaching the 41st week of pregnancy with elective labour induction since 1998. The very low percentage of women who consulted an Ob/gyn or family physician during the gestational period, as well as the extremely low percentage of women who underwent the recommended fetal and maternal controls, indicate that the General Practitioner should be aware of these low rates and low standards of maternal care, of the low informational status (in terms of maternal health care services) of women living in rural areas (most of the women with prolonged pregnancies lived in rural areas, where there is no easy access to an Ob/Gyn) and assume a more active and more responsible role in monitoring pregnancy in close collaboration with a specialist.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Post-term pregnancies, general practitioner, maternal care, family physician
Subjects:	600 Tecnologia - Scienze applicate > 610 Medicina e salute (Classificare qui la tecnologia dei servizi medici) > 618 Altri rami della medicina; Ginecologia e ostetricia, Pediatria, Geriatria
Depositing User:	Matteo Viola
Date Deposited:	09 Jul 2013 10:35
Last Modified:	09 Jul 2013 10:35
URI:	http://eprints.bice.rm.cnr.it/id/eprint/6055

Actions (login required)

View Item