Weak labor activity – pathology of the birth process, which consists in weak, short and fading contractions, when the opening of the cervix occurs for a long time or is absent altogether, and the fetus moves very slowly along the birth canal. According to medical statistics, cases of weak labor occur in 10% of cases of all labor: in this case, doctors use stimulation to accelerate it. Weak labor activity can lead to extremely unfavorable consequences: cause overwork of the woman in labor, cause asphyxia and hypoxia of the fetus, cause birth bleeding, and much more.
What is the expression of weak labor activity?
Weak labor activity prolongs the labor process, makes it more painful and poses a threat to the fetus. With weak labor, the uterus contracts with insufficient force for a longer time, the intervals between contractions are increased, the rhythm is disturbed, the cervix opens slowly, the anhydrous interval is elongated. With weak labor, the woman in labor quickly gets tired, and the moment that the process is not going quite as it should, aggravates the situation: it creates unnecessary stress and can cause a feeling of panic in the woman in labor. Because of all these reasons, the fetus is strongly delayed in the birth canal, which leads to leads to oxygen starvation and endangers life.
Causes of labor weakness
Weak labor activity it is divided into primary and secondary. Primary weak labor activity is manifested from the moment of the beginning of labor activity-contractions are weak from the very beginning, secondary weakness develops during labor against the background of normal labor activity. There are a number of possible reasons for the weakness of a woman in labor:
— hormonal failure;
— fear of childbirth, stress;
— disorders of the endocrine system;
— features of the physiology of a woman in labor: narrow pelvis, flat bladder, obesity;
— pathologies in the uterus: excessive stretching, inflammation, malformations of the fetus;
— large fruit;
— multiple pregnancies;
— postponed pregnancy;
— the woman in labor is under 17 or over 30 years old;
— improper use of drugs that affect the tone of the uterus.
Stimulation of labor activity
From the very beginning weak labor activity stimulated by amniotomy — opening of the fetal bladder. This is a small painless operation, since there are no nerve endings on the fetal membranes. This procedure is performed when the cervix is opened by more than 2 cm. In most cases, labor after an amniotomy increases. If this does not help speed up the process, obstetricians use medication to stimulate labor. The most common method is intravenous administration of uterotonics (oxytocin and prostaglandins), drugs that stimulate uterine contractions. Along with this, the work introduces a cardiotocography device that allows you to monitor the fetal heart rate and uterine tone with a graphic representation of signals on the calibration tape.
To restore the strength of the woman in labor, the obstetrician, after consulting with an anesthesiologist, can inject her with analgesics that cause drug-induced sleep. This method is used extremely rarely and only in cases where it is more useful than the harm caused to the fetus.
If all the methods used do not help, doctors can perform an emergency caesarean section, but usually events develop in the future as follows: the woman in labor is put on the delivery table, put a dropper and, in the absence of attempts, is forced to push at the doctor’s command. In addition, the fetus is “squeezed” out of the stomach in the truest sense of the word, by pressing hard on the stomach. The next thing that can contribute to the birth is an instrumental-vaginal delivery, that is, the use of a vacuum extractor or forceps that are inserted into the birth canal, applied to the baby’s head and pull it out.
If the child can be saved, then he is put in labor trauma, and the consequences of all the methods used and stimulation of weak labor are treated for many years after birth.