Prenatal diagnosis of congenital heart disease: impact of mode of delivery on neonatal outcome.

Objective: We sought to evaluate the impact of mode of delivery (MOD) on early outcome for neonates diagnosed prenatally with major forms of congenital heart disease (CHD).

Methods: We retrospectively studied infants admitted, over a 2-year period, to a single institution for cardiac intervention. Infants were grouped on the basis of timing of diagnosis (prenatal/postnatal) and MOD--planned (induced labor or planned cesarean delivery) versus spontaneous labor.