Optimizing outcomes for women in labor at the global level requires evidence-based guidance of health workers to improve care through appropriate patient selection and use of effective interventions. In this regard, the World Health Organization (WHO) published recommendations for induction of labor in 2011. The goal of the present guideline is to consolidate the guidance for effective interventions that are needed to reduce the global burden of prolonged labor and its consequences. The primary target audience includes health professionals responsible for developing national and local health protocols and policies, as well as obstetricians, midwives, nurses, general medical practitioners, managers of maternal and child health programs, and public health policy-makers in all settings.

The delivery of high quality and equitable care for both mothers and newborns is complex and requires efforts across many sectors. The United States spends more on childbirth than any other country in the world, yet outcomes are worse than other high-resource countries, and even worse for Black and Native American women. There are a variety of factors that influence childbirth, including social determinants such as income, educational levels, access to care, financing, transportation, structural racism and geographic variability in birth settings. It is important to reevaluate the United States' approach to maternal and newborn care through the lens of these factors across multiple disciplines. Birth Settings in America: Outcomes, Quality, Access, and Choice reviews and evaluates maternal and newborn care in the United States, the epidemiology of social and clinical risks in pregnancy and childbirth, birth settings research, and access to and choice of birth settings.

This up-to-date, comprehensive and consolidated guideline on essential intrapartum care brings together new and existing WHO recommendations that, when delivered as a package, will ensure good-quality and evidence-based care irrespective of the setting or level of health care. The recommendations presented in this guideline are neither country nor region specific and acknowledge the variations that exist globally as to the level of available health services within and between countries. The guideline highlights the importance of woman-centered care to optimize the experience of labor and childbirth for women and their babies through a holistic, human rights-based approach. It introduces a global model of intrapartum care, which takes into account the complexity and diverse nature of prevailing models of care and contemporary practice. The recommendations in this guideline are intended to inform the development of relevant national- and local-level health policies and clinical protocols. Therefore, the target audience includes national and local public health policy-makers, implementers and managers of maternal and child health programs, health care facility managers, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), professional societies involved in the planning and management of maternal and child health services, health care professionals (including nurses, midwives, general medical practitioners and obstetricians) and academic staff involved in training health care professionals.

This book is meant to bridge the gap between small handbooks that do not contain enough material to understand why you are doing certain things and large textbooks that lack the practical information you need for how to do specific procedures, write notes, orders, and dictations. After reading it, you will be prepared to care for an obstetric patient from the moment they arrive in triage until the time they are discharged. You will understand not only how to perform both simple and complicated procedures, but also why they are necessary, and you will have the answers to the most common pimp questions that are asked of students and residents. The most up-to-date literature and evidence-based recommendations have been used to create simple treatment algorithms for the most common issues you will face, and numerous illustrations are included for clarity as well. Because of its focus, this book is also valuable resource for staff physicians who need an updated text on current obstetric care as well as for those who regularly interact with and teach medical students and residents.

This practical manual promotes an evidence-based paradigm of fetal heart rate monitoring during labour, moving away from the traditional 'pattern-based' interpretation to physiology-based interpretation. Aimed at obstetricians and midwives, it is useful to all those involved in multiprofessional intrapartum care.

The updated recommendations in this document on the timing of induction of labour supersede the previous WHO recommendations on this topic, in the 2018 publication WHO recommendations: induction of labour at or beyond term.

The most comprehensive evidence-based guide to both obstetrics and gynecology Aimed at practicing obstetricians, gynecologists, and trainees in the specialty, Evidence-based Obstetrics and Gynecology concentrates on the clinical practice areas of diagnosis, investigation and management. The first section of the book discusses evidence-based medicine methodology in the context of the two specialties. The second and third sections cover all the major conditions in obstetrics and gynecology, with each chapter reviewing the best available evidence for management of the particular condition. The chapters are structured in line with EBM methodology, meaning the cases generate the relevant clinical questions. Evidence-based Obstetrics and Gynecology provides in-depth chapter coverage of abnormal vaginal bleeding; ectopic pregnancy; pelvic pain; lower genital tract infections; contraception and sterilization; breast diseases; urogynecology; endocrinology and infertility; puberty and precocious puberty; cervical dysplasia and HPV; cervical, vaginal, vulvar, uterine, and ovarian cancer; preconception care; prenatal care and diagnosis; drugs and medications in pregnancy; maternal complications; chronic hypertension; diabetes mellitus; thyroid disease; neurologic disease; psychiatric disease; postterm pregnancy; fetal complications; preeclampsia; and more. First book to address evidence-based practice for obstetrics and gynecology combined EBM is a highly relevant approach for this high risk specialty Edited by leading US specialist involved in the evidence-based medicine movement Evidence-Based Obstetrics and Gynecology is an important text for obstetricians and gynecologists in practice and in training, as well as for specialist nurses.