Progression of the first stage of spontaneous labour: A prospective cohort study in two sub-Saharan African countries.
Olufemi T OladapoJoao Paulo SouzaBukola FawoleKidza MugerwaGleici de Castro da Silva PerdonáDomingos AlvesHayala SouzaRodrigo ReisLivia Oliveira-CiabatiAlexandre MaioranoAdesina AkintanFrancis E AluLawal OyeneyinAmos AdebayoJosaphat ByamugishaMiriam NakalembeHadiza A IdrisOla OkikeFernando AlthabeVanora HundleyFrance DonnayRobert PattinsonHarshadkumar C SanghviJennifer Elizabeth JardineÖzge TunçalpJoshua P VogelMary Ellen StantonMeghan A BohrenJun ZhangTina LavenderJerker LiljestrandPetra Ten Hoope-BenderMatthews MathaiRajiv BahlAhmet Metin GülmezogluPublished in: PLoS medicine (2018)
Cervical dilatation during labour in the slowest-yet-normal women can progress more slowly than the widely accepted benchmark of 1 cm/hour, irrespective of parity. Interventions to expedite labour to conform to a cervical dilatation threshold of 1 cm/hour may be inappropriate, especially when applied before 5 cm in nulliparous and multiparous women. Averaged labour curves may not truly reflect the variability associated with labour progression, and their use for decision-making in labour management should be de-emphasized.