First and Second Stage Labor Management

PURPOSE: 

The purpose of this document is to define labor and labor arrest and provide recommendations for the management of dystocia in the first and second stage of labor and labor arrest.

TARGET POPULATION: 

Pregnant individuals in the first or second stage of labor.

METHODS: 

This guideline was developed using an a priori protocol in conjunction with a writing team consisting of one maternal–fetal medicine subspecialist appointed by the ACOG Committee on Clinical Practice Guidelines–Obstetrics and two external subject matter experts. ACOG medical librarians completed a comprehensive literature search for primary literature within Cochrane Library, Cochrane Collaboration Registry of Controlled Trials, EMBASE, PubMed, and MEDLINE. Studies that moved forward to the full-text screening stage were assessed by the writing team based on standardized inclusion and exclusion criteria. Included studies underwent quality assessment, and a modified GRADE (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation) evidence-to-decision framework was applied to interpret and translate the evidence into recommendation statements.

RECOMMENDATIONS: 

This Clinical Practice Guideline includes definitions of labor and labor arrest, along with recommendations for the management of dystocia in the first and second stages of labor and labor arrest. Recommendations are classified by strength and evidence quality. Ungraded Good Practice Points are included to provide guidance when a formal recommendation could not be made because of inadequate or nonexistent evidence.