CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

• Background to the Study

Globally, labour has been defined as a physiological process characterized by an increase in myometrial activity resulting in cervical effacement and dilatation; followed by the expulsion of the foetus from the uterus to the outside world. It is therefore imperative for midwives to monitor the woman in labour utilising a partograph in order to have a safe delivery; and to avoid obstructed and prolonged labour (Ratchliffe, 2010).

A partograph is an effective clinical tool used during labour surveillance for early diagnosis of complications.  The partograph is a simple chart that, when used routinely for every birth, aids the monitoring of labour and provides early warning of the need for intervention so health workers can provide prompt, appropriate care (World Health Organisation, 2014). Partograph was developed by an obstetrician named Friedman, which he tagged as cervicograph as a result of its usefulness to monitor cervical dilatations. Furthermore, cervicograph was adopted by Philpott in 1972 and he redesigned it as partograph to serve as a practical device in the documentation of all intrapartum observations and not only to monitor cervical dilatation, hence, the phrase “Philpott’s pantograph”. This new document contains action lines and alert lines which are used to determine cases of prolonged labour.

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