ABSTRACT
The study was undertaken to test the hypothesis that shoulder dystocia might be suspected
and reliably identified from the labor partogram. A retrospective analysis of 52 consecutive
patients with shoulder dystocia was performed. The 52 controls were the next consecutive
parturient matched for maternal age, gestational age at delivery, parity, presentation,
and infants weight at deli very. The mean dilation rate was 2.1 ± 1.9 cm/hr in shoulder
dystocia group compared to 2.4 ± 1.5 cm/hr in the control group. The incidence of
protracted rate of less than 1 cm/hr was 14.3% in shoulder dystocia group and 13.5%
in the control group. The mean duration of second stage was 38.3 ± 30.7 minutes in
the shoulder dystocia group compared to 35.5 ± 32.5 minutes in the control group.
Only 1.9% have had a prolonged second stage (more than 2 hours) in the shoulder dystocia
group compared to 1.9% in the control group. The difference between the groups regarding
the length of labor was not statistically significant. We conclude that protracted
labor does not seem to be a risk factor for shoulder dystocia.
Keywords
Shoulder dystocia - normal labor - abnormal labor
