Background and Objective: Epidural analgesia (EA) has been used to relieve labor pain in many obstetric units, yet controversy persists about its effect on progress and outcome in labor. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the effect of EA on the rate of cervical dilation and myometrial contractility. Methods: In a 6-month period, 36 women who received standardized EA were mat...

OBJECTIVE To examine labor patterns in a large population and to explore an alternative approach for diagnosing abnormal labor progression. METHODS Data from the National Collaborative Perinatal Project were used. A total of 26,838 parturients were selected who had a singleton term gestation, spontaneous onset of labor, vertex presentation, and a normal perinatal outcome. A repeated-measures ...

Dystocia is common in nulliparous women and is responsible for more than 50 percent of primary cesarean deliveries. Because cesarean delivery rates continue to rise, physicians providing maternity care should be skilled in the diagnosis, management, and prevention of dystocia. If labor is not progressing, inadequate uterine contractions, fetal malposition, or cephalopelvic disproportion may be ...

The growth of e-learning, and subsequently, of blended learning in recent years in response to the global demand for increased productivity in education and training has been astounding! While the commercial response, including that of universities, to this rapid increase in demand and to the associated potential of communications technologies to provide global access has been impressive, signi...

BACKGROUND Whether epidural analgesia for labor prolongs the active-first and second labor stages and increases the risk of vacuum-assisted delivery is a controversial topic. Our study was conducted to answer the question: does lumbar epidural analgesia with lidocaine affect the progress of labor in our obstetric population? METHOD 395 healthy, nulliparous women, at term, presented in spontan...