The influence of prenatal breech presentation on neonatal leg posture

The aim of our study was to examine the effect of prenatal breech presentation on postnatal leg posture. Twelve infants were born after breech presentation and nine infants after cephalic presentation participated. At 2, 4, 6, 12 and 18 weeks postnatal age leg posture was examined during general movements in supine and vertical position.ResultsTransient differences in hip posture between the groups were observed during the first 6 weeks postnatal age, with significantly more hip flexion and less hip extension in the breech group. For knee extension, differences between the groups were not statistically significant.Changing from supine to vertical position, the breech group demonstrated a significant increase in hip extension, with no significant changes in hip posture for the cephalic group. For both groups the vertical condition resulted in a significant increase in knee extension. Continuity from pre- to postnatal life was found for hip posture in both groups and for knee extension only in the breech group.ConclusionsSignificant differences between breech and cephalic-born infants were found during the first 6 weeks after birth and mainly concerned hip posture and not knee posture. An increase in gravitational force has more impact on leg posture in the breech than in the cephalic group. The observed differences in hip posture between the studied groups were found to be transient, however, in the long term subtle differences still remain between the groups.