Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2017 Dec;44(4):547-566.
doi: 10.1016/j.ogc.2017.08.009.

Defining and Managing Normal and Abnormal Second Stage of Labor

Yvonne W Cheng  1 , Aaron B Caughey  2
Affiliations
Review

Defining and Managing Normal and Abnormal Second Stage of Labor

Yvonne W Cheng et al. Obstet Gynecol Clin North Am. 2017 Dec.

Abstract

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) Practice Bulletin No. 49 on Dystocia and Augmentation of Labor defines a prolonged second stage as more than 2 hours without or 3 hours with epidural analgesia in nulliparous women, and 1 hour without, or 2 hours with epidural in multiparous women. This definition diagnoses 10% to 14% of nulliparous and 3% to 3.5% of multiparous women as having a prolonged second stage. Although current labor norms remained largely based on data established by Friedman in the 1950s, modern obstetric population and practice have evolved with time.

Keywords: Cesarean; Epidural; Length of labor; Second stage of labor.

PubMed Disclaimer

LinkOut - more resources