Care for women in labor in the United States is in a period of significant transition. Many intrapartum care practices that are standard policies in hospitals today were instituted in the 20th century without strong evidence for their effect on the laboring woman, labor progress, or newborn outcomes. Contemporary research has shown that many common practices, such as routine intravenous fluids,...

BACKGROUND The identification of risk factors for in utero and intrapartum transmission of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) is crucial to the design and understanding of preventive interventions. METHODS The randomized Perinatal HIV Prevention Trial-1 enrolled 1437 pregnant women and their non-breast-fed infants, to compare the efficacy of various durations of zidovudine prophylaxi...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the association of intrapartum magnesium sulfate for fetal neuroprotection (MgSO4-FN) with the delivery room resuscitation and neonatal outcomes of preterm infants in an era of minimisation of invasive mechanical ventilation. DESIGN Retrospective cohort study. SETTING Neonatal intensive care units in the Canadian Neonatal Network. PATIENTS AND INTERVENTION Preterm in...

Background. Confidential enquiries into maternal deaths in the UK have repeatedly highlighted increased maternal morbidity and mortality associated with maternal obesity. Objective. To determine the impact of increased body mass index (BMI) on intrapartum outcomes. Materials and Methods. A retrospective case-control analysis of intrapartum outcomes of the study group (100 women), with a BMI abo...

Continuous electronic fetal monitoring was developed in the 1960s to assist in the diagnosis of fetal hypoxia during labor. Continuous electronic fetal monitoring has been shown to reduce the incidence of neonatal seizures, but there has been no beneficial effect in decreasing cerebral palsy or neonatal Continuous electronic fetal monitoring was developed in the 1960s to assist in the diagnosis...

This syndrome was first described by Lyell (1956) in this country and by Lang and Walker (1956) in South Africa and has since been reported with increasing frequency. Beare (1962), in a comprehensive review, collected 35 cases from the published reports and described 10 further cases that he had observed personally. He suggests that it is unlikely that the syndrome could have been seen in the U...

Intrapartum perinatal mortality, the deaths that occur during the period around birth, is a major problem in developing countries accounting for more than one million stillbirths and a similar number of neonatal deaths worldwide each year [1,2]. A number of authors have emphasized that the time encompassing labor and the 24 hours after birth is the most dangerous period for both the mother and ...

Intrapartum hypoxia was thought to contribute to the incidence of cerebral palsy, seizures and mental retardation. Electronic fetal monitoring was expected to prevent or reduce this incidence. Electronic fetal monitoring has a high false positive rate and fetal blood sampling, which is an invasive procedure, only allows an intermittent assessment. Efforts are being made to improve fetal heart r...

Electronic foetal heart-rate monitoring In current practice, electronic foetal heart-rate monitoring is performed by either the internal or the external method. With the internal method, an ECG electrode is applied directly to the foetus, and the monitor separates the foetal electrocardiogram from the maternal, amplifies the foetal signal and measures the intervals between consecutive foetal he...