Influence of introducing a maneuverable vacuum extractor cup on maternal hospital stay after instrumental birth. Retrospective cohort study

ObjectivesThe aim of our study is to evaluate the impact of the introduction of a maneuverable vacuum extractor cup on the length of hospital stay after assisted vaginal birth in nulliparous women in a hospital where no vacuum devices were used.MethodsThis single center retrospective analytical study included two groups of nulliparous women who had undergone an assisted vaginal birth. The 2 groups differ according to the availability or not of a maneuverable vacuum extractor cup. The first group includes the last 54 instrumental births until May 2017, when only obstetric forceps and Thierry's spatulas were available in our center; the second group includes the first 54 instrumental births since May 2018 in our center, when obstetric forceps, Thierry's spatulas and maneuverable vacuum extractor cup were available. Maneuverable vacuum extractor cups had been available for 12 months in the second group.ResultsIn the no vacuum cup group, Kjelland forceps and Thierry's spatulas were used in 29 (53.7%) and 25 (46.3%) of the 54 assisted vaginal births, respectively. In the vacuum available group, a vacuum cup was chosen in 30 (55.6%), Kjelland forceps were used in 18 (33.3%) and Thierry's spatulas in 6 (11.1%) of the assisted vaginal births. 22 women (40.7%) had a postpartum hospital stay longer than 3 days in the group with no maneuverable vacuum extractor cup availability, versus 3 women (5.6%) in the group with availability of a maneuverable vacuum extractor cup, p < 0.001. Average postpartum hospital stay length was 3.17 ± 0.803 days versus 2.81 ± 0.585, p < 0.001. There was also a significant reduction in the number of episiotomies.ConclusionThe introduction of a maneuverable vacuum extractor cup in a center where only forceps and Thierry's spatulas had been used resulted in a decrease in postpartum hospital stay in nulliparous women.