In a study presented at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's annual meeting, The Pregnancy Meeting™, in Dallas, Texas, researchers reported findings that suggest that delivery by cesarean section may not be protective compared to vaginal deliveries for babies who are small for their gestational age (those weighing less than the 10th percentile at birth based on national growth curves) born more than six weeks before their due date.

"We found that infants delivered vaginally were not at a significantly increased risk for any neonatal complications. In fact, infants delivered by cesarean had significantly higher odds of breathing problems after birth," said Erika F. Werner, MD, with Johns Hopkins University, Gynecology and Obstetrics in Baltimore, Md., and one of the study's authors. "This indicates that cesarean isn't superior to vaginal deliveries for this high risk population."

For the study, entitled Method of Delivery and Neonatal Outcomes in Preterm, Small for Gestational Age Infants, Werner and her colleagues studied birth data of this high risk population that was collected in New York between 1995 and 2003.

The results indicate that delivery by cesarean section was not associated with decreased odds of any neonatal complications and was associated with significantly higher odds of respiratory distress syndrome in small for gestational age preterm newborns.