Conclusion
We conclude that 6cm rather than 4cm of cervical dilatation is more
appropriate landmark for the start of the active phase. Allowing labor
to continue for a longer period before 6 cm of cervical dilation may
reduce the rate of unnecessary intrapartum interventions and caesarean
section for labor dystocia. A woman to be considered in latent phase if
cervical dilatation is less than 6 cm and other maternal and fetal
conditions are reassuring, she should be allowed to continue the labor
process without any intervention.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: I thank all the women who consented to
participate in the study as well as the staff at the centre for their
assistance with study enrolment. I am grateful to Professor Sunita Malik
for their efforts in creation of the project and increasing the
feasibility of the research. I am thankful to my mother Rekha Purwar, my
husband Dr Alok Jaiswal for their supports.
DISCLOSURE OF INTEREST : The authors have no conflicts of
interest in connection with this article.
CONTRIBUTION TO AUTHORSHIP: RP and SM conceived and
designed the study. RP acquired the data. ZK carried out the
statistical analysis. SM, AM, PP, PM and SS supervised the study. RP
wrote the paper. RP and SM analysed and interpreted the data,
critically revised the manuscript for important intellectual content
and take responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy
of the data analysis.
DETAILS ETHICS APPROVAL: This project was approved by
institute Ethics Committee of VMMC and SJH, New Delhi (date of approval:
25 November 2014; reference number:
IEC/VMMC/SJH/Thesis/November-2014/376). All participants provided
written informed consent.
FUNDING: The author received no financial support for
the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article