Pediatrician attendance at cesarean delivery: necessary or not?

Abstract Objective: To determine whether it is necessary for a pediatrician to attend all cesarean deliveries. Methods: We analyzed a database of 17,867 consecutive deliveries to determine the rates of low Apgar scores in the following three groups of patients: those with vaginal delivery, cesarean delivery using regional anesthesia without fetal indication, and cesarean delivery for fetal indications or using general anesthesia. Results: There was a significantly higher rate of low Apgar scores in the fetal indications or general anesthesia group when compared with vaginal deliveries. Specifically, 35 (5.8%) of 596 cesareans for fetal heart rate abnormality or using general anesthesia had 1-minute Apgars under 4 in contrast to 115 of 10,270 (1.1%) of vaginal deliveries. There was no significantly increased risk for low Apgar scores in the group of cesareans using regional anesthesia for nonfetal indications (33 of 2057, 1.6%). Results were similar for Apgar scores under 7 at 5 minutes. Conclusion: Because there is no higher incidence of low Apgar scores in cesarean deliveries using regional anesthesia for nonfetal indications compared with vaginal deliveries, there is no convincing need for pediatrician attendance at such deliveries.