Background: Over the
past several decades, rates of cesarean delivery have increased considerably
worldwide. As cesarean section (CS) may also result in changes
to uterine position, the relationship between delivery modes, postpartum uterine
position and cesarean scar defect (CSD) warrants elucidation. Materials
& Methods: Here, we conducted a retrospective observational study
evaluating 921 women (482 underwent vaginal delivery and 439 underwent CS) who
had undergone transvaginal ultrasonography (TVU) early in their pregnancy (8
weeks). Subsequent ultrasonography was performed 3–6 months postpartum to
evaluate uterine position for all women and saline infusion sonohysterography
(SIS) for women who underwent CS. The outcome was the uterine position for all of
the women and the CSD for women underwent CS. Results: A total
of 716 women (371 of whom underwent vaginal delivery and 345 of whom underwent
CS) were concluded in the study. Postpartum uterine position was found to be
significantly changed from anteflexion (81.9% for vaginal delivery and 82.0%
for CS) to retroflexion (29.1% for vaginal delivery and 46.7% for CS) after
both vaginal (p 0.001) and CS (p 0.001) deliveries. CSD
was diagnosed by SIS in 146 of 345 (42.3 95% CI 37.1–47.6) women that underwent
CS. CSD prevalence among anteflexed and retroflexed uterus were 46.7% (95% CI
39.5%–54.0%) and 37.3% (95% CI 29.7%–44.8%), respectively (p =
0.08). Conclusions: This study revealed that uterus became
retroflexed in patients who underwent either CS or vaginal deliveries. CS
resulted in a significantly greater proportion of retroflexed uterus than did
vaginal delivery. CSD prevalence among women with retroflexed uterus in the
postpartum has no difference with those with anteflexed uterus.