Third trimester ultrasound could reduce undetected breech pregnancies by 71%

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2023-04-07 04:00

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Giving pregnant women routine third-trimester ultrasound scans could reduce rates of undetected breech pregnancy - where the baby is lying feet or bottom-first - by 71%, enabling better care before and during labor and improved outcomes for newborns, according to UK and Turkish scientists. They looked at data from births at two UK hospitals before and after third-trimester ultrasound scans or point of care ultrasounds (POCUS) were introduced. In one of the hospitals, introducing the extra ultrasound scans cut undiagnosed breech pregnancies from 14.2% to 2.8%, while in the other, it fell from 16.2% to 3.5%. Analysing the data, they also found the extra scans reduced the probability of low APGAR scores, which indicate a baby's condition shortly after birth, in breech pregnancy infants.