EDITOR, - James G Thornton and Richard J Lilford's review of active management of labour1 was accepted for publication too late for it to include the results of the multicentre trial of the World Health Organisation partogram.2 Although not a randomised controlled trial (it would be impossible to conduct such a trial free from bias), this trial of the impact of use of the partogram with an agreed protocol for managing labour on the outcome of labour is important because of its scientific rigour, the fact that it was a multicentre study, and, in particular, the large …