BMJ 1994;309:1016 (15 October)

Letters

Strict definition of labour is essential

EDITOR, - In their critique of the package of interventions that constitute active management of labour James G Thornton and Richard J Lilford point out that controlled trials of these interventions have failed to show a reduction in operative delivery similar to that seen in Dublin, yet they fail to offer a hypothesis to explain those results1 In dismissing the approach piecemeal they leave the shortest part of their analysis to perhaps the most important part of the regimen: that the women should be in labour.

The definition of labour in the original papers was strict.2 It could be argued that the success of the package of interventions depends on the reduced rate of false positive diagnoses of labour. The 40% of women who return in labour 24 hours after initial assessment may have been in the latent phase and so naturally preparing themselves for labour. Being adequately established in . . . [Full text of this article]


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Article

Active management of labour: current knowledge and research issues
J G Thornton and R J Lilford
BMJ 1994 309: 366-9. [Abstract] [Full Text]

Access jobs at BMJ Careers
Whats new online at Student BMJ