Antenatal and perinatal antecedents of moderate and severe spastic cerebral palsy

Abstract

Motor vehicle drivers know they can, inadvertently of course, with their vehicles, kill or maim; obstetricians, rightly or wrongly, largely believe that they can do the same - why else emphasis on detection, interpretation and timely intervention (e.g. prompt delivery often by Caesarean section) when there is fetal distress (clinical or cardiotocographic) in labour, and employment of nontraumatic delivery when labour is obstructed. Is this analogy simplistic, false and/or naive? This journal has published a consensus statement (A) from an authoritative team of panel members from all the relevant disciplines that concluded that 'while obstetric interventions in the presence of signs of possib..