Cervix Size At Halfway Pregnancy May Predict Cesarean Delivery

Cambridge, United Kingdom (AHN) - According to a new study, the size of a woman's cervix at her mid-pregnancy may play a role as to whether she will deliver her baby through a cesarean section.

Lead researcher Gordon C.S. Smith, MD, PhD, from Cambridge University, Cambridge, United Kingdom, and colleagues from the Fetal Medicine Foundation Second Trimester Screening looked at the cervical length of 27,472 women in the middle of their pregnancies, about 23 weeks after becoming pregnant. It was the first pregnancy for all the women.

Researchers found out that the larger a woman's cervix at mid-pregnancy, the higher her chance of having a cesarean birth. Those women with the longest cervix size, about 40 to 67 millimeters got 25.7 percent chance of a cesarean birth. Those who have smallest cervixes, about 16 to 30 millimeters, had a 16 percent chance of cesarean delivery.

"Poor progress during labor at term is the most common indication for primary cesarean section and, hence, an important determinant of overall rates of cesarean section," the study authors conclude. "Our finding that a long cervix in mid-pregnancy is predictive of cesarean section during labor at term suggests that poor progress during labor in women who deliver at term may be related to dysfunctional development of the uterus at much earlier stages of pregnancy."

The study was published in the March 27 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine,