ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: the dystocic delivery is a frequent complication and its perinatal repercussions vary from minor lesions to severe brain damage. It has been reported diverse factors associated with this medical complication. OBJECTIVE: to identify the risk factors with significant association with dystocic delivery. MATERIAL AND METHODS: a case-control study was carried out. There were included 750 patients, divided into 250 women with dystocic deliveries (cases) and 500 women with eutocic deliveries (controls). Demographic and clinical variables were registered. The statistical analysis was performed with percentages, arithmetic media, standard deviation, Student t test, chi2 and logistic regression analysis. An alpha value was set at 0.05. RESULTS: the factors with statistical significance were: advanced age (p < 0.001), major patient's height (p < 0.001), major new born's weight (p = 0.009), lower parity (p < 0.001), and prolonged duration of labor (p = 0.04). Other variables such as number of pregnancies, previous cesarean sections, spontaneous abortions, weight of the patient, weight earned during pregnancy, number of medical appointments during antenatal care, previous dystocic delivery, and premature rupture of the membranes, were not significant. CONCLUSIONS: there are clinical and demographic risk factors associated with dystocic delivery. To identify this risk factors during the antenatal care could diminish the frequency of dystocic deliveries and therefore to avoid the associated maternal-fetal complications.