Vaginal births after Caesarean (VBAC): a population study

Abstract

This paper describes delivery outcomes for women from Victoria, Australia, who gave birth in 1995 and whose immediately previous (penultimate) delivery, within a 5-year search period, was a Caesarean section. Because of the large numbers of records involved, dedicated computer software for record linkage was used to identify the previous delivery and link it with the woman's current birth in 1995. Overall, 79% of the records from multiparous women were linked successfully. Approximately 15% were not linked because the previous birth was before the search period or was an abortion that would not have been reported to the Perinatal Data Collection Unit. Reasons for not being able to link the l..