The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
NEW research spearheaded at University Maternity Hospital Limerick (UMHL) has shown a reliable way to predict which first-time mothers are likely to need a Caesarean section when in labour. The research paper, The Genesis Study, was the only one from outside North America among the first 30 selected, from some 1,600 submissions from all over the world, for oral presentation at the recent annual meeting of the Society for Foetal-Maternal Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. The Perinatal Ireland research team showed in the study, which involved some 2,500 first-time mothers, that five key patient characteristics out of 37 characteristics that were analysed can be combined in a mathematical model to predict which patients are more likely to need a Caesarean delivery in labour. These characteristics are older maternal age, shorter maternal height, higher maternal BMI, bigger foetal abdomen size and bigger foetal head size. The study was designed and proposed in 2009 by Dr Gerry Burke, clinical director for Maternal and Child Health …
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