title: Recent research questions the values of routine intervention.
abstract: Under appropriate circumstances, intervention in labor and birth can be valuable, even lifesaving. But interventions can also become routine procedures. This paper reviews three recent studies in which the focus of research is common interventions: electronic fetal monitoring and epidural anesthesia. A fourth study reviewed here examines the effect of previous vaginal birth and fetal weight on the success of vaginal birth after cesarean.
authors.affiliation: M ary L ou M oore is an associate professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
authors.forename: Mary Lou
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Moore