[ozmidwifery] Fw: [MCNSW] more interventions for labour!

[Denise Hynd]

----- Original Message ----- From: Virginia Miltrup To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, November 15, 2002 8:08 AM Subject: [MCNSW] more interventions for labour! a proposed drug to reduce the time of first labour to 2-3 hours by softening the collagen in the cervix! The scientists reckon it doesn't hurt more, (but then again they might have been blokes :-)). Website listed below. Love Kate PS What about all those women who were already going to have quick births??  http://www.ivenus.com/family/news/LC-notebook1-wk40.asp less labour? If only childbirth weren't such hard work. it may soon get easier, thanks to a new drug. The move is on to shorten childbirth via a new drug that is due to be tested later this year, according to a report in the New Scientist. The theory is that a shorter labour should be less painful and require less intervention on the part of doctors. The average time that most first-time mums spend in labour is around 18 hours, and while this can be speeded up with prostaglandin gels or synthetic hormones, these drugs can make labour unbearably painful and may make women feel the urge to push before the cervix is fully opened. This in itself can lead to complications. The new drug, developed and patented by Britain's Medical Research Council, may cut the average labour down to only two or three hours. Most of the long, painful hours of labour are spent as the cervix slowly opens from tightly closed to 10 centimetres. Many women feel they have been in labour forever and rush into the hospital expecting to deliver instantly only to be told they are just two or three centimetres dilated! For most women (although there are those who have quick births), dilation of the cervix is a slow process. The new drug, however, is designed to speed up this process by softening the collagen in the cervix. It is likely to be administered either through gel, cream, microcapsules or injection, although as yet it is not known what form it will take. So far it has only been tested on monkeys. In these cases, the Scottish firm Ardana Bioscience, which has the licence for the new drug, reports it worked very effectively. By Marianne Hartigan Maternity Coalition NSW www.maternitycoalition.org.au To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.