Increased adverse perinatal outcome of hospital delivery at night.
OBJECTIVE
To determine whether delivery in the evening or at night and some organisational features of maternity units are related to perinatal adverse outcome.


METHODS
A 7-year national registry-based cohort study.


METHODS
All 99 Dutch hospitals.


METHODS
From nontertiary hospitals (n = 88), 655 961 singleton deliveries from 32 gestational weeks onwards, and, from tertiary centres (n = 10), 108 445 singleton deliveries from 22 gestational weeks onwards.


METHODS
Multiple logistic regression analysis of national perinatal registration data over the period 2000-2006. In addition, multilevel analysis was applied to investigate whether the effects of time of delivery and other variables systematically vary across different hospitals.


METHODS
Delivery-related perinatal mortality (intrapartum or early neonatal mortality) and combined delivery-related perinatal adverse outcome (any of the following: intrapartum or early neonatal mortality, 5-minute Apgar score below 7, or admission to neonatal intensive care).


RESULTS
After case mix adjustment, relative to daytime, increased perinatal mortality was found in nontertiary hospitals during the evening (OR, 1.32; 95% CI, 1.15-1.52) and at night (OR, 1.47; 95% CI, 1.28-1.69) and, in tertiary centres, at night only (OR, 1.20; 95% CI, 1.06-1.37). Similar significant effects were observed using the combined perinatal adverse outcome measure. Multilevel analysis was unsuccessful; extending the initial analysis with nominal hospital effects and hospital-delivery time interaction effects confirmed the significant effect of night in nontertiary hospitals, whereas other organisational effects (nontertiary, tertiary) were taken up by the hospital terms.


CONCLUSIONS
Hospital deliveries at night are associated with increased perinatal mortality and adverse perinatal outcome. The time of delivery and other organisational features representing experience (seniority of staff, volume) explain hospital-to-hospital variation.
de Graaf
J P
JP
Division of Obstetrics and Prenatal Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Erasmus MC, University Medical Centre Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Ravelli
A C J
AC
Visser
G H A
GH
Hukkelhoven
C
C
Tong
W H
WH
Bonsel
G J
GJ
Steegers
E A P
EA
D000328:Adult; D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000592:standards; D015331:Cohort Studies; D036861:Delivery, Obstetric / Q000401:mortality / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D005865:Gestational Age; D006276:Health Facility Size / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006771:Hospitals, Maternity / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008423:Maternal Age; D008505:Medical Staff, Hospital / Q000592:standards; D009426:Netherlands / Q000453:epidemiology; D010298:Parity; D054238:Perinatal Mortality; D011247:Pregnancy; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012044:Regression Analysis; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult