A recently published article in The Guardian outlines the World Health Organization’s latest stance on speeding up labor:

New guidance from the WHO overturns decades of previous advice, which said that labour which progressed at a slower rate than 1cm of cervical dilation per hour in the first stage was risky. Women are often given the drug oxytocin to speed up labour and end up with epidurals because of the pain, followed by forceps or vacuum deliveries and in some cases a caesarean section.

That old guidance “may be unrealistic for some women and is inaccurate in identifying women at risk of adverse birth outcomes”, says the agency.

Click here to read the full article and click here to download the full WHO pdf, which covers this and much more (including recommendations of care through all the stages of labor, birth, and the postpartum period).