Loading...
Recent research has shown that fetal descent rates in labor may be slower than traditionally thought (NEJM JW Womens Health Mar 18 2014). Moreover, the evolution of obstetric practice has resulted in increasing use of epidural anesthesia. How have these variables affected the average duration of labor? Researchers at one academic hospital conducted a retrospective cohort study involving >42,000 singleton vaginal births from 1976 to 2008. Duration of the second stage of labor was characterized by calculating the median and 95th percentiles. Women were stratified by parity and use or nonuse of epidural anesthesia.
About half of the women received epidural anesthesia. In nulliparous women, median duration of labor's second stage was 47 minutes …