Mode of Delivery in Drug-Dependent Pregnant Women: A Case Control Study

Objective. to determine the contribution of drug use during pregnancy to the route of delivery. methods. a case-control study was conducted at a hospital in coimbra,portugal,between 2001 and 2014. drug-dependent pregnant women (n=236) were compared with a control group of low risk women (n=228) in terms of maternal characteristics,obstetric history,pregnancy complications,and labor details. factors that influenced the mode of delivery were determined. statistical analysis was performed with spss v. 23.0 (ibm corp.). p values < 0.05 were considered statistically significant. results. drug-dependent women presented a lower rate of cesarean delivery (18.2 versus 28.9%,p=0.006). after adjusting for the factors that were significantly related to the mode of delivery,drug dependency influenced the rate of cesarean section (β=0.567; 95% ci = 0.328-0.980). within the drug-dependent group,the mode of delivery was significantly related to previous cesarean or vaginal delivery (p=0.008 and p<0.001,resp.) and fetal presentation (p<0.001),but not with the type of drug,route of administration,or substitution maintenance therapy. conclusions. the drug-dependent group presented a significantly higher rate of vaginal delivery. however,this was not associated with the behavioral factors analyzed. we hypothesize that other social and psychological factors might explain this difference. © 2017 ana raquel neves et al.