Resting During the Second Stage of Labor Is Safe

Standard obstetric practice encourages "pushing the baby out" at the beginning of the second stage of labor, the time from complete cervical dilation to delivery. In women who receive epidural analgesia, cesarean section is usually performed if delivery does not ensue within 2 hours of pushing in multiparous women and within 3 hours in primiparous women. In this randomized trial of 252 women who received epidural analgesia, investigators compared perinatal outcomes in 2 groups: Women in one group were encouraged to rest, rather than push, at complete cervical dilation until the baby's head was at the introitus, and women in the other group began pushing at complete dilation. The researchers assessed rate of fetal descent, time pushing, feta…