Context

Bugg et al discuss the important question of whether labour augmentation with oxytocin would decrease the duration of labour. This treatment is part of active management of labour, a concept that also includes objective diagnosis of labour and early amniotomy.1 Slow progress of labour or ineffective uterine activity has been quoted as the cause of caesarean sections in 35% of women with cephalic pregnancies2 and as a possible cause for an increase in maternal and foetal morbidity.3 4 Several types of abnormal labour can be studied.

In 1989, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists suggested that arrest of the first stage of labour cannot …