Survey of external cephalic version services in the East of England region: Comparison of services in 2007 and 2012

Abstract

External cephalic version (ECV) has been recognised by the Royal college of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) as a safe procedure for the conversion of breech presentations to cephalic presentation. The need to reduce the incidence of breech presentations is due to the associated increase in complications for both mother and baby in a breech delivery. The RCOG published the Green-top Guideline No. 20a in December 2006 and revised it in December 2010. In our study, we conducted a survey across all hospitals in the East of England (EoE) region in 2007 and 2012 to assess the ECV service and to determine if this fulfils the RCOG recommendations.

Keywords::

• Breech pregnancy
• ECV

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.