Labor in the gravida with 10 or more years between pregnancies

It has been suggested that women who have had a pregnancy interval of 10 or more years would have prolonged labor in pregnancies after the first, as do primigravidas. In a series of 94 multiparas with 10 or more years between pregnancies and 63 age-matched, multiparous controls, there was no significant difference in the length of the latent phase of labor or of the first, second and third stages of active labor in the two groups. The concept of a "physiologic primigravida" in these cases should be abandoned.