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 ...

Fetal Heart Rate (FHR) is clinically used for early detection of fetal acidosis. Despite a marked interest in automatic detection procedures, FHR analysis remains a challenging signal processing task, receiving considerable research attention. Among other difficulties, the two stages of labor (dilation and active pushing) produce very different FHR dynamics. Most research efforts, however, have...

Background: Delivery is one of the critical stressful incidents in lives of most women and its associated complications can disturb the progress of labor and exacerbate post partum problems. Chewing gum is one of the new non-pharmacological methods to reduce stress. So far no study has been conducted to investigate the effect of chewing gum on the stress of labor. Aim: To determine the effect o...