Objective:

To investigate the impact of performing scheduled cesarean sections for term singleton pregnancies on working versus non-working days on maternal and neonatal outcomes.

Approach:

• Study Design: This single-center retrospective cohort study included women with term singleton pregnancies who underwent scheduled cesarean sections at a hospital between January and December 2024, with surgeries scheduled between 08:00 and 18:00.
• Participant Grouping: Participants were divided into working-day and non-working-day groups based on the date of surgery.
• Propensity Score Matching: 1:1 nearest neighbor matching was used to balance confounding factors such as maternal age, gestational age, parity, prior cesarean deliveries, conception method, hypertensive disorders, gestational diabetes, and pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI).
• Outcome Comparison: Postoperative fever, neonatal transfer, surgical outcomes, and umbilical cord blood gas parameters were compared between groups.
• Statistical Analysis: Multivariable linear regression analysis was performed to adjust for residual confounding.

Key Findings:

• No significant differences in postoperative fever, neonatal transfer, surgical blood loss, postoperative hospital stay, antibiotic duration, or umbilical cord pH and lactate levels between groups (p > 0.05).
• Surgery on non-working days was associated with a shorter operative duration (β = −3.82, 95% CI: −7.22 to −0.42, p = 0.029).

Interpretation:

In this study population, no statistically significant differences in short-term adverse maternal or neonatal outcomes were detected between scheduled cesarean sections performed on working and non-working days.

Limitations:

• Single-center study may limit generalizability.
• Sample size may not be sufficient to detect small differences.

Conclusion:

No statistically significant differences in outcomes were found between cesarean sections performed on working versus non-working days.