[ozmidwifery] OP stats...interesting

[Jo & Dean Bainbridge]

This was from Midwifery Today and thought it might be of interest.  For me OP was always a concern as my first bub was OP and a cs, the next OP and a nasty instrumental VBAC and the third was OA and a totally BEAUTIFUL birth with very little fear/pain and time in labour.  It was fear of OP that stopped me from having a homebirth for the third, despite what I know about birth!  We have found that women who contact CARES who want to discuss their options, are very afraid of repeating what happened last time, and as OP is very commonly associated with CS they are quite concerned it would happen again.  I have heard such things are "I would prefer a cs rather than an OP again" or "I wont try a VBAC if it ends the up the same as the last birth".    I know there are some professionals who do not feel focusing on position is very good thing to do. One of the greatest things I have heard was a mw saying to me OP stands for Opportunity to turn... which was what I needed to hear at the time.   What are some of your thoughts in regards to the stats below? Cheers Jo     News Flashes Comparative statistics for persistent occiput posterior (OP) fetal position and occiput anterior (OA) include:   OP OA     OP OA labor longer than 12 hours 49.7% 26.2%     0 to 6 1-minute Apgar 12.4% 7.1% length of stage 2 greater than 2 hours 53.3% 18.1%   7 to 10 1-minute Apgar 87.6% 92.9% spontaneous delivery 37.7% 83.9%   0 to 6 5-minute Apgar 0.6% 0.9% assisted vaginal delivery 24.6% 9.4%   7 to 10 5-minute Apgar 99.4% 99.2% cesarean delivery 37.7% 6.6%   shoulder dystocia 0.8% 2.1% third- or fourth-degree tear 18.2% 6.7%   nuchal cord 18.6% 21.6% — Persistent fetal occiput posterior position: obstetric outcomes. Obstet Gynecol 2003; 101:917