Perinatal outcome and associated factors of persistent breech presentation at the Port Moresby General Hospital, Papua New Guinea.

A study of 502 singleton persistent breech presentations and 502 controls of cephalic presentations during labour, at the Port Moresby General Hospital, was carried out from January 1988 to July 1993. In 76 (15%) of the cases, at least one attempt was made at external cephalic version. Backward logistic regression analysis showed that Momase or Islands region ethnicity, previous breech delivery, lack of antenatal care, preterm delivery, low birthweight and congenital anomalies were significantly associated with persistent breech delivery. The perinatal outcome of babies with breech presentation was worse than among babies with cephalic presentation.