The Effect of Delivery Type on the Indices of Term Newborn Infants’ Umbilical Vein Blood Gas

Introduction: caesarean section (also known as c-section or caesarean delivery) has undergone an enormous increase over the recent decades, particularly in iran where the rate of c-section is five times larger than that of the global standards. moreover, according to several studies, there is the possibility that caesarean delivery can affect umbilical vein blood gas. accordingly, the present study was conducted aiming to examine the impact of delivery type on the indices of term newborn infants’ umbilical vein blood gas. methods: the present cross-sectional study explored a total of 222 newborn infants born in shahid motahari hospital, marvdasht, iran in 2015 based on three delivery-type groups, namely, natural delivery, general anesthesia-used caesarean and spinal anesthesia-used caesarean. of all the infants, an amount of 0.5cc umbilical vein blood was taken and then examined in terms of blood gases. the two groups were compared with each other with regard to 1st and 5th minutes’ apgar score, anesthesia duration as well as its influence on blood gases. the data was then analyzed using spss software. findings: mean and standard deviation values for apgar score in natural delivery at the beginning of birth equaled 8.8 ± 0.59, suggesting a significant difference between natural delivery and other caesarean groups (p= 0.01). it should be noted that no significant difference was reported in infants’ umbilical vein blood in the two groups in terms of ph (p=0.08), po2 (p=0.79) and pco2 (p= 0.85). likewise, there was a significant difference in umbilical base excess of natural delivery and caesarean groups (p=0.03). conclusion: based on the research results, compared to infants in caesarean groups, those born naturally enjoy higher apgar score and base excess.