What Do Obstetricians Really Think about Ultrasound in the Delivery Room?

BACKGROUND: In recent years, the role of intrapartum sonography has expanded in childbirth management, in subjective clinical situations such as arrested deliveries, or prior to instrumental deliveries.

OBJECTIVES: To assess the current use of intrapartum ultrasound by obstetricians in Israel.

METHODS: An anonymous questionnaire was completed by 79 obstetricians in second- and third level- hospitals in Israel. The results were analyzed according to main subspecialty (sonography, delivery), experience and gender.

RESULTS: A questionnaire was completed by 56 senior obstetricians and 23 interns with an average experience of 14.3 and 2.4 years, respectively. All obstetricians performed ultrasound examinations in the delivery room for basic indications such as fetal presentation during twin delivery and to rule out placenta previa. Sonographers consistently reported advanced indications as compared to senior members of delivery teams and interns in the assessment of prolonged first (52% vs. 14% vs. 14%) and second stage of labor (88% vs. 52% vs. 62%) and in assessment of fetal head station (60% vs. 30% vs. 22%), head progression during descent (48% vs. 23% vs. 11%), diagnosis of head position (88% vs. 68% vs. 60%), spine direction (92% vs. 59% vs. 53%) and asynclytism (41% vs. 20% vs. 29%).

CONCLUSIONS: Ultrasound is currently used by all physicians in the delivery room for basic indications. However, obstetric teams report a low use of advanced intrapartum ultrasound and prefer to rely on their clinical experience. Advanced intrapartum sonographic imaging should be an integral part of obstetric qualifications. A steep learning curve, along with high reproducibility, suggests that ultrasound devices will become a common tool in labor and delivery management.