Simple management of poor cervical progression during labor by continuous epidural analgesia

A series of 112 primiparous parturients in labor with poor cervical progression were managed according to the double-lined labor nomogram. These patients all had labor progression beyond the alert line which were defined as poor cervical progression. Continuous low concentrated marcaine (0.125%) epidural analgesia were then offered to these indicated patients. These 112 poor labors were compared with 143 poor cervical progression labors without epidural analgesia in terms of mode of delivery and maternal morbidities. The results showed a decrease in cesarean section rate in cases with epidural analgesia (20.5% vs 34.3%, p less than 0.05) but no increase use of instrumentation was noted, also, maternal morbidities were much less in epidural cases compared to poor labors without epidural analgesia (6 in 112 vs 19 in 143, p less than 0.05). Continuous epidural analgesia performed on labors with poor progression improved the labor outcome and decrease maternal morbidities satisfactorily.