Timing of scheduled cesarean delivery in patients on a teaching versus private service: adherence to American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists guidelines and neonatal outcomes.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to compare adherence to American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists guidelines for the timing of scheduled cesarean delivery in patients of a resident teaching service and patients of a private service to determine the neonatal intensive care unit admission rate and the most frequent admission diagnoses after scheduled cesarean delivery and to compare neonatal outcomes between the groups.

Study Design: A retrospective cohort was reviewed by medical record at a tertiary care center. The cases of 609 patients who were delivered by scheduled cesarean delivery were reviewed, and 296 patients were included. Data regarding demographics, dating, delivery, and outcome were collected and compared with the use of statistical software.

Results: Significant differences were noted between patients of a teaching service and patients of a private service, with respect to patient age (26.9 vs 30.7 years; P < .001), body mass index (33.7 vs 31.9 kg/m2; P = .030), race (40.4% white patients in resident teaching services vs 86.0% white patients in private services; P < .001), primary elective cesarean delivery (4 vs 23 deliveries; P = .013), and adherence to American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists guidelines for the timing of elective delivery (96.3% vs 62%; P < .001), with no significant difference in number of neonatal intensive care unit admissions, severity of neonatal disease, or length of stay in the neonatal intensive care unit. The overall neonatal intensive care unit admission rate for all deliveries by scheduled cesarean delivery was 3.7%. The most frequent neonatal intensive care unit admission diagnoses were hypoglycemia and transient tachypnea of the newborn infant, with no severe sequelae of prematurity in either group. When controlled for fetal anomalies and infants who were born to pregestational diabetic mothers, no significant differences in number of admissions or outcomes were noted; however, 50% of the admissions to the neonatal intensive care units in both groups resulted from violations in American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists criteria.

Conclusion: The overall neonatal intensive care unit admission rate after scheduled cesarean delivery in this study is consistent with that reported in the neonatology literature. Patients of a teaching service were a demographically different group than those on the private service, were less likely to get an elective primary cesarean delivery, and were more likely to be delivered in adherence to American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists guidelines, although this did not significantly affect the rates of admission to the neonatal intensive care unit or neonatal outcome.