[Duration of pushing in labor: literature review]

Abstract

French guidelines recommend performing an assisted delivery after 30min pushing, even if the fetal heart rate is reassuring. A literature review shows that international practices differ from French recommendations; primiparous women usually push on average one hour. Specific data about duration of the active second stage are scarce. Therefore, there is no evidence that maternal and neonatal outcome would be improved by an early-assisted delivery as compared to pushing efforts prolonged after 30min.