The multigravid partogram--should it be customised?

Multigravid labour is conducted according to an alert line and an action line derived from primigravid spontaneous labour. Although it is widely recognised that multigravid labour is significantly faster than primigravid labour, the standard of care for both is the 'usual-care' partogram. A series of 1398 partograms of spontaneous multigravid labours resulting in vaginal delivery was audited. Retrospectively, the labours were graphed on a usual-care and on a customised partogram. The customised alert line was built to represent the rate of cervical dilataion of the lower 90 per cent. (after excluding the 10 per cent of very rapid labours.) The effect of putting the action line 2, 3 or 4 hours behind the alert line on the relative distribution of labours was tested. The results indicate that the norms of the usual-care partogram do not reflect the facts of multigravid labour.