Normal Labor

This guideline aims to promote and encourage the physiologic spontaneous normal labor in low-risk women at term. It also aims to encourage both practitioners and pregnant women through combined informed decision to promote and grow interest in normal labor through the proper diagnosis and management and use of minimal interventions during labor.

The main reasons for developing this guideline are: decreasing both maternal, fetal and neonatal morbidity and mortality, and decreasing Cesarean section rate on national level.

Complications during labor are suggested to be responsible for one third of maternal deaths, half of stillbirths and a quarter of neonatal deaths with majority of these deaths occurring in low-resource settings.

According to the data by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) published in Egypt Family Health Survey (EFHS, 2021), Cesarean section births increased to 72% in 2021, up from 52% in 2014.