Practice of Assisted Vaginal Birth in Egypt

May 10, 2026 updated by: Ahmed Mohammed Elmaraghy, Ain Shams Maternity Hospital

Factors Affecting the Practice of Assisted Vaginal Birth in Three Tertiary Level Hospitals in Egypt. A Cross-Sectional Study

In Egypt, the proportion of CSs has been steadily increasing in recent years and has reached an alarming level. According to data from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), approximately 6% of caesarean sections (CS) are performed on average because of inadequate supervision from junior staff members or a lack of training, particularly during the critical decision-making phase of this second stage. The unfamiliarity and lack of experience with operative vaginal delivery is a major cause for the rise in the rate of second stage caesarean section. This survey targets obstetricians with different levels of experience to find practical solutions to increase the rate of assisted vaginal delivery which subsequently will decrease the rate of second stage CS.

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Egypt is a populous African country with a population of about 102 million people in 2020. Egypt has the highest cesarean section (CS) rate in the Middle East, which has increased from 20% in 2005 to 52% in 2014. Globally, the estimated number of births by Cesarean section (CS) increased from 16 million (12%) in 2000 to 29.1 million (21%) in 2015. Furthermore, during the same period, several studies have demonstrated a remarkable increase in the rate of second-stage cesarean section.

Whereas forceps-assisted vaginal delivery represented 38% of deliveries in rural areas of Egypt, in the United States, operative vaginal delivery in the form of either forceps-assisted vaginal delivery (FAVD) or ventouse-assisted vaginal delivery (VAVD) has declined remarkably since 1990. The utilization of operative vaginal delivery in live births decreased from 9.0% in 1990 to 3.1% in 2016. During the same period, the percentage of VAVD deliveries fell from 3.9 to 2.6%, and FAVD from 5.1 to just 0.5%. The declining rate of assisted vaginal delivery contributed to the rise in the cesarean section rate from 22.7% in 1990 to 31.9% in 2016.

The performance of AVB by physicians with a high level of experience and certified training courses should be considered a safe alternative to second-stage cesarean section. This does not only depend on the physician, but it also depends on the patient's preference. In this survey, the investigators explore Egyptian obstetricians 'attitudes and perceptions on AVB.

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment (Estimated)

150

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Contact Backup

Study Locations

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sampling Method

Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Obstetricians from three tertiary maternity hospitals in Cairo, Egypt. The three hospitals are Ain Shams University Maternity Hospital, El Hussein University Hospital, and El Kasr Alaini Hospital

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Obstetricians with at least 3 years of experience in practicing obstetrics
  • Obstetricians with their primary health care facility being one of the three Tertiary centres, Ain Shams University Maternity Hospital, El Hussein University Hospital, and El Kasr Alaini Hospital

Exclusion Criteria:

-

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Obstacles preventing the increase in the performance of assisted vaginal birth in Egypt by a questionnaire directed to obstetricians in three maternity tertiary centers in Cairo, Egypt
Time Frame: through the study completion, an average of 4 months
through the study completion, an average of 4 months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Ain Shams Maternity Hospital

Investigators

  • Study Chair: Alaa S Elsewafy, M.D.,, Faculty of Medicine - Ain Shams university
  • Principal Investigator: Mohamed A Haroun, Faculty of Medicine - Modern University for Technology and Information
  • Study Chair: Ahmed M Sweidan, Faculty of Medicine - Suez University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

January 15, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

July 15, 2026

Study Completion (Estimated)

July 15, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

December 4, 2025

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 15, 2025

First Posted (Actual)

December 30, 2025

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

May 12, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 10, 2026

Last Verified

May 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 20 (Sophies Minde Ortopedi AS)

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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