ABSTRACT
Obstructed labour is the situation where in spite of adequate uterine contraction the progressive decent of presenting part is arrested due to mechanical obstruction. Obstructed labour contributes to around eight percent of maternal deaths in India. It is also one of the leading causes of perinatal morbidity and mortality in developing countries. We wanted to study the risk factors and fetomaternal outcome in obstructed labour at Chittaranjan Seva Sadan College of Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Child Health. This will help us to assess obstetric near miss cases and to develop strategies to decrease the complications arising from obstructed labour.METHODSThis was a three year retrospective observational study conducted by reviewing the records of obstructed labour during the period April 2014 - March 2017. The study was approved by Institutional Ethics Committee. All the mothers who were admitted in the labour room with signs and symptoms of obstructed labour were included in this study. All the relevant information such as age, parity, socioeconomic status, risk factors, complications, mode of delivery, and fetomaternal outcome were collected.RESULTSThere were 219 cases of obstructed labour among a total of 23,815 deliveries. Most common cause for obstructed labour was cephalopelvic disproportion (77%) followed by malposition/malpresentation (17.3%). Majority of the patients (69.2%) belonged to poor socioeconomic group. Sepsis (10.6%) and pyrexia (9.6%) were the common complications. Neonatal mortality was 30.8% and maternal morbidity was 5.8%.CONCLUSIONSLack of health education, antenatal care, low socioeconomic condition, poor referral system and demographic factors are important contributory factors leading to adverse outcome of obstructed labour. This can be sorted out by proper antenatal care, improving health care delivery system and by timely referral of cases according to partograph monitoring.