The effect of obstetric practice change to reduce early term delivery on perinatal outcome

Objective: To investigate whether the national emphasis on attaining ⩾39 weeks gestation has altered obstetric practice, and if so whether this has affected perinatal morbidity. Study Design: We examined trends in gestational age, neonatal morbidity, maternal complications and stillbirth for a retrospective cohort of singleton, live births between 37+0 and 39+6 weeks of gestation over a 5-year period at a single tertiary care center. Result: There were 21 343 eligible deliveries. The proportion of deliveries in the early term (