Complications of pregnancy contribute to a substantial proportion of the global burden of disease [1]. Most adverse pregnancy outcomes occur to women who lack obvious risk factors. However, despite many years of research, the current approach to screening low-risk women for complications such as pre-eclampsia and stillbirth is still based around serial measurement of blood pressure, urinalysis,...

The assessment of fetal growth represents a fundamental step towards the identification of the true growth restricted fetus that is associated to important perinatal morbidity and mortality. The possible ways of detecting abnormal fetal growth are taken into consideration in this review and their strong and weak points are discussed. An important debate still remains about how to discriminate b...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the benefits and risks of using uterine fundal pressure in shortening the second stage of labor and on the obstetrical outcome. MATERIAL AND METHODS A pilot study comprising 209 primigravidae between 37 and 40 gestational weeks with singleton fetus in cephalic presentation admitted to the delivery suite were considered and were randomly allocated into two groups: I (n=10...

Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) remains one of the main challenges in maternity care. Improvements have to start from a better definition of IUGR, applying the concept of the fetal growth potential. Customized standards for fetal growth and birthweight improve the detection of IUGR by better distinction between physiological and pathological smallness and have led to internationally appl...

Placenta accreta presents one of the highest risks to pregnancy, and its more severe variant, placenta percreta, is particularly risky. The incidence of both conditions is increasing. Placenta percreta requires a cesarean hysterectomy for management, but the challenges associated with this surgery often result in severe obstetric hemorrhaging and high rates of maternal morbidity. Several recent...