New study shows twins do not require C-section

Expecting twins? You probably don't need to schedule a cesarean section. Most moms can safely give birth without surgery, a big study finds.

It's the latest research to question the need for C-sections, which are done in one-third of all births in the United States and three-fourths of those involving twins. Studies increasingly are challenging long-held beliefs about cesareans, such as that women who had one need to deliver future babies the same way.

Now doctors are looking hard at C-sections for twin births, which are on the rise because of infertility treatments. Twins have more risk for birth complications and some studies suggest C-sections lower that risk, but this had not been put to a rigorous test.

Dr. Jon Barrett of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center in Toronto, led a study in 25 countries of 2,800 women pregnant with twins. All of the first of the twins to be delivered were in good position for birth (most doctors still recommend a C-section if the first twin is in feet-first or breech position).

Half of the moms were scheduled to have C-sections and the rest, vaginal births. About 40 percent of the latter group wound up having C-sections, and 10 percent of those scheduled to have cesareans ended up giving birth vaginally.

About 2 percent of newborns died or had a serious problem, but the manner of birth made no difference. Nor did it affect the rate of complications in moms.
The Canadian Institutes of Health Research paid for the study. Results are in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.

"These results do not indicate that all sets of twins should be delivered vaginally," but that planning to do so is a reasonable choice if the doctor is experienced in twin births and knows when a C-section becomes necessary, Dr. Michael Greene of Massachusetts General Hospital wrote in a commentary in the journal.
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It's about time they did a study on this. C-section carries risk too and twins shouldn't be an automatic c/s, there are lots of factors involved but ultimately if all is well and twin 1 is in a good position then there's no reason not to go for a vaginal birth.

The USA is wasting mony on a studdy like this? I could have toll that to the USA for free after all woman give borth all over the world ever day with out suggery, Most places in the world with out a docter even. Some off the woman even give borth too tripliteds by them self out side in the field then go right back to pick. No wander the Usa Groverment ran out off money wasting it on things that dont need studdying. Sorry all pet pev of my any goverment wast off mony be it my goverment or somone elle goverment.

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my sil gave birth vaginally to her set of twins. It was her first hospital birth (her previous 2 children were at home). They set up an epidural in case she needed it quickly after the first one came....but she did great without one.
Definitely possible.
Angie

I had my twins naturally and one came out feet first! They tried to push an epidural onto me and so before the birth I wrote a detailed birth plan saying I wanted no drugs and no intervention and had it approved by the professor of the fetal medicine unit. 😊

I know of lots of vaginally born twins, including a few unassisted births because the restrictions on twins in a lot of places are ridiculous; pretty well designed to guarantee a cesarean becomes "necessary"

A work mate of mine gave birth vaginally to twin girls two weeks ago. 13 hours of labour and both around the 5 pd mark. It's definitely possible.

An aquaintance had her twins 5 days ago. They tried to force a lot of unnecessary stuff on her, including a cesarean (entirely down to one twin being quite a bit bigger). She refused & signed off AMA on most of what they tried to push her into & gave birth naturally to the first baby 6 1/2 hours after her water broke & the other about 20 minutes later.

The bigger twin ended up being 2lbs bigger. Fraternal, so no TTTS, in case anyone was wondering. The bigger twin was exactly the same size as her singleton and she carried them to 40 weeks. I was amazed because she had HG for quite awhile & nutrition is such a huge factor in twin gestation length, not to mention size.