standard policy of use of WHO partograph in the active management of labor

ABSTRACT

This study evaluated the introduction of active standard management policy of labor in a large teaching hospital. In the first six months of the study, a partograph without preset lines was used, but acceleration was practiced without standard guidelines [Group I 636 patients]. In the following six months, the WHO partograph with a present alert and action lines and an active management protocol were used [Group II 630 patients]. There was a significant reduction of the duration of labor in group II and labors lasting more than 12 hours were reduced from 15% to 4.4% in primigravida and from 6.9% to 1.5% in multipara. The increased use of amniotomy to augment labor in group II led to a significant reduction in the use of oxytocin. The number of instrumental and abdominal deliveries also decreased. The frequency of babies with respiratory depression at birth was also reduced