Effect of delivery mode on objective and subjective aspects of voice

Ö. Koçak, D. Atan

Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Hitit University School of Medicine, Çorum, Turkey. dr.ozgur@hotmail.com

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• Audiology

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to compare the effect of delivery on both objective and subjective parameters of voice.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: This is a prospective parallel-group randomized controlled trial. 105 women grouped in two; vaginal delivery (NG) and cesarean group (CG). The fundamental frequency (F0), jitter, shimmer, noise-to-harmonics ratio (NHR), number of voice breaks (VBn) and percentage of voice breaks (VB%) were determined in acoustic analysis. Voice Handicap Index 30 (VHI) was used for subjective analysis.

RESULTS: In NG, a significant decrease in jit%, shim% and VB% was observed (p <.05). In CG, all parameters including F0 showed a significant decrease in early postpartum period (p <.05). CG had more significant improvement in F 0, jit%, shim%, shimdB, VB%, VBn according to test statistics values. VHI scores increased in both NG and CG.

CONCLUSIONS: The change of objective parameters was more significant in CG. Vaginal delivery may cause vocal trauma which results in deterioration in objective acoustic measures as well as decrease in subjective voice quality.

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