[Course of delivery in obese women after normal pregnancies]

The course of deliveries in 134 obese women in whom the pregnancies had been normal were compared with a matched control group of women with normal weights. More of the obese women had second stages of labour lasting for more than one hour. Apart from this no differences were observed in the frequencies of complications, the nature of the complications or the number of interventions during delivery. The frequencies of infants weighing more than 4,000 g were identical in both groups but were high compared with other investigations. In the group of obese mothers, significantly more infants were found to have Apgar scores of 7 or less after one minute. An association was found between a long second stage and low Apgar score in five out of 12 infants in the obese group. Two out of three infants with shoulder dystocia, all born to obese mothers, had low Apgar scores. It is emphasized that in obese parturient women, particular care should be employed to ensure optimal conditions in the active phase and during the actual delivery. Stimulation with syntocin and episiotomy are recommended on liberal indications. Apart from this, there does not appear to be any need for increased observation of obese parturient women, provided that pregnancy has been normal.