title: The phases and stages of labour.
abstract: During recent decades the understanding and practice of obstetric care have evolved at a rapid pace. Consequently definitions that have promoted the principles of practice have had to be greatly modified or discarded. My thesis is that the time has come for the concepts of phases and stages of labour to be abandoned on the grounds that they now retard, rather than advance, progress in the care of the labouring woman.
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007747:Labor Stage, First; D007748:Labor Stage, Second; D007749:Labor Stage, Third; D007743:Labor, Obstetric; D007744:Obstetric Labor Complications / Q000628:therapy; D010298:Parity; D011247:Pregnancy; D012306:Risk; D013997:Time Factors