Correspondence

"Correspondence." The Journal of Maternal-Fetal & Neonatal Medicine, 19(5), pp. 315–316

Increases in the rate of shoulder dystocia – Reply

VANI DANDOLU

Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Temple University Hospital, Philadelphia, PA 19140, USA

Thank you for your interest in our research work. We agree with your comment that lack of newborn birth weights and information regarding whether episiotomy was performed prior to occurrence of dystocia or for the management of dystocia limits the conclusions that can be drawn from this database. However, it is documented in the literature that the newborn birth weight has steadily increased over the past two decades [1], and this probably explains part of the increase in the rate of shoulder dystocia, in addition to the improved ‘coding’. As discussed in the manuscript it is vital to have linkage of databases with maternal and newborn information to derive valid conclusions.

Vani Dandolu, MD

Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology

Temple University Hospital

Philadelphia, PA 19140, USA

E-mail: [email protected]