ArticleJournal of midwifery & women's health2020
Calculators Estimating the Likelihood of Vaginal Birth After Cesarean: Uses and Perceptions.
Article in Journal of midwifery & women's health, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 15 citations in OpenAlex.
- Automating Racism: Is Use of the Vaginal Birth After Cesarean Calculator Associated with Inequity in Perinatal Service Delivery?Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities · 2026Article
- Assessing Racial/Ethnic Variation and Trends in Vaginal Birth after Cesarean in California: A Retrospective Cohort Study Using Linked Birth Certificate and Hospital Discharge Records.American journal of perinatology · 2026Article
- Epistemic Silences and Experiential Knowledge in Decisions After a First Cesarean: The case of a vaginal birth after cesarean calculator.Medical anthropology quarterly · 2023Article
- Identifying risk of stillbirth using machine learning.American journal of obstetrics and gynecology · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
introductionA calculator estimating likelihood of vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC) has been promoted by the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, but little is known about how it is used and perceived in practice. Cutoffs for prohibiting labor after cesarean are discouraged by the calculator's developers, but such uses may be widespread. The purpose of this study was to determine how calculators predicting VBAC are used and perceived in midwifery practices.
methodsCertified nurse-midwives and certified midwives currently providing care for labor after cesarean were surveyed between January 17, 2019, and February 7, 2019. Quantitative and text data were collected regarding the uses and perceptions of calculators among midwives and their colleagues. We compared these findings with midwives' perceptions of their ability to accommodate patient wishes for labor after cesarean. We used descriptive content analysis to evaluate themes occurring in text responses.
resultsThere were 1305 valid responses. A requirement to use calculator scores for patient counseling was reported by 527 (40.4%) of responding midwives. Over 1 in 5 midwives reported that scores were used to discourage or prohibit labor after cesarean. Almost half reported some or strong disagreement with physician colleagues regarding calculator use. Interprofessional agreement and disagreement centered on how scores are used to direct clinical care or restrict patient options. Calculator scores were used in more than twice as many midwives' practices to discourage rather than encourage labor after cesarean. Descriptive analysis of text revealed 4 themes regarding calculators: inconsistent use, information counseling, informed consent, and influence patient management or options. DISCUSSION: Calculators predicting likelihood of VBAC success are widely used in midwifery settings and are more often used to discourage than to encourage labor after cesarean. Midwives reported both directive and nondirective counseling based on calculator scores.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.