BACKGROUND The optimal timing of epidural analgesia has been a controversial issue, and how early women can benefit from epidural analgesia is still debated. The objective of this trial was to test the hypothesis that patient-controlled epidural analgesia given at cervical dilation of 1.0 cm or more does not increase the risk of prolonged labor or Cesarean delivery. METHODS After institutiona...

OBJECTIVE To examine labor patterns in a large population and to explore an alternative approach for diagnosing abnormal labor progression. METHODS Data from the National Collaborative Perinatal Project were used. A total of 26,838 parturients were selected who had a singleton term gestation, spontaneous onset of labor, vertex presentation, and a normal perinatal outcome. A repeated-measures ...

OBJECTIVE Comparing the efficacy of low-dose sublingual misoprostol plus laminaria to medium-dose sublingual misoprostol alone for cervical dilation before surgical management of late first trimester missed abortions. METHODS Randomized, controlled trial evaluated 70 women with missed abortion, admitted for surgical termination of pregnancy. The patients were randomly assigned to receive 200 ...

This technical report describes the creation and use of a cervical dilation and effacement model in a pre-licensure nursing course in reproductive health. Vaginal examination is typically taught in reproductive health courses; however, nursing students do not always have sufficient opportunity to practice on actual patients. This low-cost task-training model provides undergraduate nursing stude...

OBJECTIVE To increase access to early second-trimester surgical abortion by determining noninferiority of same-day synthetic osmotic dilators compared with overnight Laminaria for cervical preparation before early second-trimester dilation and evacuation. METHODS We enrolled women between 14 and 18 weeks of gestation and randomized them to same-day synthetic osmotic dilators or overnight Lami...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE We undertook this case-control study in patients with unilateral spontaneous dissection of the cervical internal carotid artery to investigate spontaneous and endothelium-independent dilation of the nondissected, contralateral carotid arteries and the ipsilateral brachial artery using high-resolution ultrasound. METHODS Spontaneous and endothelial-independent (nitroglyc...

Roughly 11% of induced abortions in the United States are performed after 14 weeks of gestation, most commonly by dilation and evacuatio (D&E). For aD&Eprocedure, the cervixmust be dilated sufficiently to allow passage of operative instruments and products of conceptionwithou injuring the uterus or cervical canal. Preoperative preparation of the cervix reduces the risk of cervical laceration an...

Artificial insemination (AI) and embryo transfer (ET) play an important role in the genetic improvement of sheep herds. This review primarily describes the methods that have recently been researched and/or adapted to circumvent the problematic anatomy of the ovine cervix, which prevents the widespread application of transcervical AI and ET in this species. A mechanism of cervical ripening at pa...

BACKGROUND Labor that progresses faster than anticipated may lead to unplanned out-of-hospital births. With the aim to improve planning of transportation to birthing institutions, this study investigated predictors of time to completion for the first stage of labor conditional on cervical opening (conditional time) in multiparous women at term. METHODS We performed a retrospective analysis of...