The closer D-day gets, the lower is the patience level! There is excitement, happiness and incredible restlessness to meet the little one. Therefore, the thought of the birth being delayed, prolonged or obstructed on D-day is emotionally disheartening.
Prolonged labour can cause serious harm to the baby or the mother and may be life-threatening. Below we shall explore what it is and how it can affect you.
Prolonged Labour is also known as failure to progress or slow progress of labour. When the duration of labour is abnormally more, it is bracketed as prolonged labour. Prolonged labour has no definite definition as at different stages, the delay differs, and the causes also differ.
So, one is in prolonged labour if the labour lasts more than 20 hours; if its twins or multiples then prolonged labour is declared at 16 hours.
The causes of prolonged labour occur at physical, emotional and social levels. But three principal causes are the 3Ps passage, passenger, and power.
When the pelvis of the mother is too small, or the passage through which the baby is to come out is small for baby’s head to pass through the labour is prolonged. Rarely, an unusually shaped pelvis or some other obstruction in the passage such as a tumour will also lead to prolonged labour.
The causes are due to the passenger or the fatal. The foetal continues to grow even after the due date, the baby is too big, and the head is too big to pass through the pelvis.
One of the major causes of prolonged labour is lack of power in contractions. The contractions are not strong enough to induce pain or able to push for the delivery.
Signs and symptoms of prolonged labour include :
Gestational diabetes, pregnancy hypertension accompanied by obesity can increase the size of the baby than the average. Also, such health complications can make the mother weak and the fat around the birth canal can cause problems.
Lack of nutrition in the mother leads to lack of nutrition in the foetus and the uterus causing complications to the 3Ps explained above. Hence it is important to take care to be fit and strong. Sometimes a small body would indicate a small pelvis that might delay the baby’s arrival.
One of the causes for the decrease of muscle mass in a pregnant woman is lack of exercises and proactiveness. Labour is a very active and strenuous procedure for the body. It requires good muscle function to progress smoothly through labour, a decrease in muscle mass will reduce strength increasing risk of the slow progress of labour.
The most convenient age group for the body to give birth smoothly is the late teens to the early thirties. Anything before or after is a time that the body is not prepared.
A very young body is not anticipating a birth and hence is not prepared or strong enough to give birth.
Mothers giving birth the first time at an advanced age need to be extremely fit or else, may run into health complications such as gestational diabetes
Prolonged labour can cause serious complications in the mother or the baby. Extreme being the death of the mother or the child. But advanced technology and science have reduced such complications.
Other complications in the mother include:
Problems for the baby include:
The treatment or solution is appropriate ‘prolonged labour management’. This is a medical term that means cautions and precautions taken by the health team to reduce the slow progress of labour:
The risk of failure to progress or slow progress of labour could be drastically reduced by the following precautions:
A poor lifestyle is the main causes of complications during labour. You can go for regular check-ups so that the obstetrician can spot any issues like obesity or low muscle mass. The power is in your hands and by adopting the right approach, you can minimise prolonged labour.