DELIVERY OF UNCOMPLICATED TRIPLET PREGNANCIES - IS THE VAGINAL ROUTE SAFER

OBJECTIVE: Our purpose was to evaluate the safety of vaginal delivery of triplets. STUDY DESIGN: A retrospective case-control study on 69 co nsecutive triplet pregnancies delivered in the same institution betwee n 1981 and 1992. Vaginal delivery was attempted in 23 otherwise uncomp licated triplet pregnancies, which form the study group. They were com pared with 23 controls undergoing routine cesarean section and matched for gestational age at birth. Maternal hospital stay, neonatal mortal ity, hospitalization in the neonatal intensive care unit, and 5-minute Apgar scores were compared by means of paired t tests. RESULTS: In th e vaginal delivery group there was one neonatal death related to prema turity (32 weeks). after intrapartum cesarean section for failure to p rogress. However, neonatal mortality was not significantly increased i n comparison with centrals (1 of 69 vs 0). In the study group Apgar sc ores were significantly higher (9.5 vs 8.4) and hospitalization in the neonatal care intensive unit was significantly shorter (6 vs 18 days) than in the cesarean section group (p less than or equal to 0.002). C ONCLUSION: In carefully selected cases vaginal delivery of triplets ma y be safe.