(Reuters) – many things can be done more quickly now that
50 years ago, but the arrival in the world of a baby in a way
natural seems to not be one of them, according to a study of the
Government United States.
Compared to the 1960s, American women have
passed in the last two years or three hours more in work of
delivery, according to researchers at the national institutes of
American health, which they said the finding suggests that
doctors might need to reconsider the definition of the
is a “normal” labour.
According to data published in the American Journal of
Obstetrics & Gynecology, the additional time comes from the
first stage of labor, the longest part of the
process, prior to the phase of “bid”.
Mothers are also different. On average, are more
larger and weigh more, and their babies are also more
large.
“but even when we take into account these changes
“”
demographic, labour is still longer”, said the
main researcher Katherine Laughon, Institute
National child health and human development.
Although Laughon said that the study could not identify
fully the possible reasons for the difference, one of the
partial explanations could be the pain relief of the
anesthesia, epidural, which is much more common now that makes 50
years.
It is known that epidurals can slow labor
between 40 and 90 minutes.
The data are based on two Government studies
made in different decades.
One, between 1959 and 1966, included some 39,500 women that
gave birth to a baby to term, while the other made a
monitoring to more than 98,000 women who had a baby at
term from 2002 to 2008. All the women had
a spontaneous labour, i.e. that no was inducted.
In regards to the duration of labor, the
new mothers in recent years take 2.6 hours longer in the
first stage, compared with their counterparts in the Decade of
60. This difference was reduced to two hours in women than
had already been mothers earlier.
Current women were much more likely to use
epidural anaesthesia: 55 per cent, compared with the 4
percent of the of 50 years ago.
On 12 per cent had a delivery by caesarean section compared with the
3 per cent in the early 1960s, while 31 percent
abdu’llah oxytocin – which stimulates contractions-, front
to 12 percent of 50 years ago.
Laughon noted that many more women now have jobs
labor induced or planned Cesarean, compared with
a few decades ago, which is why the number of women in
currently have labor spontaneous may differ
in some way of its counterparts of 50 years ago.
But whatever the underlying reasons, the
doctors may need to redefine the idea of a work of
childbirth “normal”, a concept which is based on what was the norm
for women half a century ago.
For example, doctors have thought that a work of
is abnormal if there is no change in the neck of the uterus after delivery
of two hours in the “active” part of the first stage of the
labor. At that time, they can intervene either
administering oxytocin or doing a c-section.
Laughon stated that the conclusion is that there would be a new
concept of “normal”, and added: “I think that we need to review
“
definitions of ' abnormal ' and labor and time
“
suitable for interventions that we use”.