RT Book, Section A1 Cunningham, F. Gary A1 Leveno, Kenneth J. A1 Dashe, Jodi S. A1 Hoffman, Barbara L. A1 Spong, Catherine Y. A1 Casey, Brian M. SR Print(0) ID 1190761068 T1 Vaginal Delivery T2 Williams Obstetrics, 26e YR 2022 FD 2022 PB McGraw Hill PP New York, NY SN 9781260462739 LK obgyn.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1190761068 RD 2024/10/09 AB The natural culmination of second-stage labor is controlled vaginal delivery of a healthy neonate with minimal trauma to the mother. Although some clinical settings favor cesarean delivery, for most fetuses, vaginal birth is preferred. For the mother, spontaneous vaginal vertex delivery poses the lowest risk of most maternal comorbidity, and comparisons with cesarean delivery are found in Chapter 30 (p. 548). Delivery is usually spontaneous, although some maternal or fetal complications may warrant operative vaginal delivery, described in Chapter 29 (p. 533). Last, a malpresenting fetus or multifetal gestation in many cases may be delivered vaginally but requires special techniques. These are described in Chapters 28 and 48.