VBAC-related perinatal deaths are more common in smaller hospitals: 36,000 Scottish women studied.(Women's Health)(Vaginal Birth After Cesarean birth )(Brief Article)

HOUSTON -- Fetal deaths caused by catastrophic uterine ruptures were a rare event and occurred most often in small hospitals in a study of nearly 36,000 Scottish women who attempted to have a vaginal birth after a previous cesarean delivery.

A number of factors were associated with uterine rupture and also with perinatal mortality in a study that linked registries of all births and perinatal deaths in Scotland from 1985 to 1998, Dr. Gordon C.S. Smith of Cambridge (England) University reported at the annual meeting of the Society for Gynecologic Investigation.

A total of 124 uterine ruptures (1 in 290) and 17 associated perinatal deaths (1 in 2,100) were …