Most women experience moderate to severe pain during labor and delivery, often requiring some form of pharmacologic analgesia.1 The lack of proper psychological preparation combined with fear and anxiety can greatly enhance the patient’s sensitivity to pain and further add to the discomfort during labor and delivery. However, skillfully conducted obstetric analgesia, in addition to relieving pa...

A 32-year-old married Chinese woman with cataplectic narcolepsy developed status cataplecticus during childbirth. It resulted in prolonged labor and required an emergency cesarean section. The patient had a history of severe and prolonged cataplectic attacks during sexual excitement but relatively mild attacks in other situations. We postulated that her susceptibility to genital stimulation mig...

A retrospective study was conducted to determine the efifects of intrathecal analgesia on length of labor. There have been a number of investigations which show contradictory evidence as to the effect of epidural (EPI) analgesia on the progress of labor. Combined spinal-epidural (CSE) and intrathecal analgesia (ITA) techniques have been used to provide effective pain relief for parturients, but...

The recent “benign” combination of strong output growth and low inflation has led to speculation that the potential growth rate of real GDP has increased. This paper exam ines trends in labor supply to see whether this source of GDP growth might have accelerated. Discussions of labor supply often focus on labor force p a rt i c i p ation. But other considerat i o ns—s u ch as the length of the ...

INTRODUCTION This study examined whether maternal plasma progesterone and corticotropin releasing hormone (CRH) concentrations can predict the likelihood of preterm labour. MATERIALS AND METHODS Maternal plasma progesterone and CRH concentrations were examined in a total of 51 women. The subject cohort included 20 women who were followed from the beginning of the third trimester (28 to 34 wee...

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has developed a concept of decent work and set this as a standard in 1999. However, in many places in the world people labour under conditions that are far from ‘decent’. Many people are subject to forced labour and experience unfreedoms, which raises important theoretical and practical issues. In this contribution we set out some of the ways in which...

The arrival of unprecedented numbers of migrant workers in the rural counties of the UK, due to EU enlargement, has created a unique opportunity. Many of these migrants wish to become more than just a source of cheap labour; they aspire to become entrepreneurs. Lincolnshire has already seen a burgeoning of migrant businesses, but these have prospered largely by serving their co-ethnic market. T...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES The length of cervix predicts the risk of preterm delivery. The objective of this study was to assess cervical length in pregnancy by transvaginal ultrasonography for generating normative data for nulliparous women at no special risk of preterm labour. METHODS An observational study was carried out in a tertiary care teaching hospital in eastern India in nulliparous wo...

Arlie Russell Hochschild’s (1983) The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling, documents the institutionalization of emotion. While the teaching profession is not prominently featured in The Managed Heart, teachers offer a compelling example of institutionalized emotion. Not only is emotional labour expected of teachers, but teachers are a significant force in the reproduction of emot...

OBJECTIVE To compare the effectiveness and adverse effects of nifedipine versus indomethacin in the treatment of preterm labor. METHODS In a randomized clinical trial, 79 women with labor pain at 26-33 weeks of gestation were treated with either oral nifedipine (n=40) or rectal indomethacin (n=39). RESULTS Twenty-three (59%) women in the indomethacin group, and 10 (25%) in the nifedipine gr...