[ effect of Atropine, Hyoscine and Promethazine on the duration of labour stages and rate of labour progress in multiparous women]

ABSTRACT

In most cases, labour is accompanied with pain. Thus, decreasing labour pain is viewed as an important duty of midwives. In this regard, decreasing the duration of labour can be of value. Customarily midwives use drugs to shorten the duration of labour, but the effectiveness of some of the drugs has not been studied systematically. Among such widely used drugs are Atropine, Hyoscine and Promethazine. In this interventional research, the effects of these drugs on labour duration were studied. 160 multiparous women in active phase of labour were selected. 120 of the above women had been administered only one of the above-mentioned drugs and no drug had been administered to the remaining 40. According to the type of drug administered, the women formed three groups, with the women with no drugs administered making the fourth groups. The four groups did not have any statistically significant difference with regard to variables such as age, occupation, education, infant sex, gestational age, infant birth weight, parity, fetal head position, and cervical dilatation at the beginning of our observation. The main result was that, the mean rate of cervical effacement [P<0.05] and descent of fetal head was not significantly different in the 4 groups. But the mean rate of cervical dilatation [P<0.05] was significantly different in four groups. In women who had been given these drugs, the mean rate of cervical dilatation was lower than the women who had not been given any drugs. The mean duration of the first stage of labour was significantly different in four groups [P<0.05]. With regard to the mean duration of the first stage of labour, it was also longer in women who had been given these drugs. The mean rate of second stage of labour and third stage of labour was not significantly different in 4 groups. The use of these drugs can reduce the rate of labour progress and increase the risk of complications, it may also be a waste of prescribed drugs