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Original Paper

Received: February 16, 2000


Gynecol Obstet Invest 2002;53:6–12
Accepted after revision: July 12, 2001

Labor in the Grand Multipara


Sven Lyrenäs
Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Uppsala University,
University Hospital, Uppsala, Sweden

Key Words increased by parity. Conclusion: Duration of the active


Labor W Active phase W Dystocia W Birth weight W Grand phase of labor increased after the fourth child. Failure of
multipara descent of the presenting part during the first stage of
labor in addition to arrest of cervical dilatation was asso-
ciated with a high cesarean section rate in the GMP
Abstract woman.
Objective: To assess delivery time and the frequency of Copyright © 2002 S. Karger AG, Basel

dystocia in grand multiparous (GMP) and grand grand


multiparous (GGMP) women. Method: Labor records
from 272 women with parity 4–8 (GMP) and 56 women Introduction
with parity 9 or higher (GGMP) were retrospectively
reviewed regarding duration of labor and the occurrence The risk of complications during a first pregnancy and
of dystocia. As a comparison, data from 263 women with labor exceeds that of the second and third [1]. For exam-
parity 1–3 (LMP) and 87 nulliparas (NP) was used. Re- ple, dystocia, or abnormal labor, is a major problem found
sults: Duration of labor, defined as time from admission mainly in the first labor [1]. Some authors claim, however,
of the laboring woman to delivery of the infant, lasted in that maternal and fetal risks are increased after the fourth
median 2.0, 2.3 and 3.1 h in LMP, GMP and GGMP, delivery [2–5]. Placental abnormalities [3], increased fre-
respectively. There was no difference in mean cervical quencies of fetal malpresentation [3, 4] and macrosomia
dilatation on admission in multiparous women. In [5] are reported reasons for this.
GGMP, the presenting part was more frequently posi- Dystocia is another possible explanation of increased
tioned above the pelvic inlet at time of admission. In mul- maternal and neonatal morbidity in relation to many pre-
tiparous women admitted during the latent phase, the vious deliveries. Duration of labor and frequency of labor
active phase of labor lasted in median 3.7 h in GMP and disturbances were compared in this study between wom-
4.7 h in GGMP, significantly longer than 2.9 h in LMP. en with very high, high and low parity. The study was car-
During the active phase of labor, GGMP experienced ried out in a hospital with a high incidence of young grand
arrest of cervical dilatation more frequently than the multiparas. The short period over which the study was
LMP. In parous women, there was a positive relationship performed should prevent possible bias due to change,
between parity and duration of the active phase of labor over time, in obstetric practice.
as well as the duration of labor. Infant’s birth weight

© 2002 S. Karger AG, Basel Sven Lyrenäs


ABC 0378–7346/02/0531–0006$18.50/0 Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, Obstetrics and Gynaecology
Fax + 41 61 306 12 34 Akademiska Sjukhuset
E-Mail karger@karger.ch Accessible online at: SE–751 85 Uppsala (Sweden)
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Material and Methods test, when appropriate. For correlation analysis, Pearson correlation
coefficient was used. Statistical significance was determined at the
Data was collected from medical records retrospectively. The p ! 0.05 level.
investigation included files from 678 women, scheduled for vaginal
delivery during a 4-month period (November 1987–February 1988)
in the King Khaled Hospital (KKH), Najran, Saudi Arabia. The
Results
KKH is a modern hospital and the delivery unit is equipped with
facilities such as electronic fetal monitoring and ultrasonography. An
efficient outpatient unit with an antenatal clinic had been opened the The main characteristics of the women in the four
preceding year. Ultrasound screening to ascertain gestational age was groups are given in table 2. Thirteen (4.0%) of the women
not done. who delivered for the fifth time or more had a previous
A parity number was given to each delivered woman, not count-
ing the current delivery. The women were divided into four groups
according to their parity number: (1) nulliparas (NP) with no pre-
vious delivery; (2) low multiparas (LMP) with 1–3 previous deliver-
ies; (3) grand multiparas (GMP) with 4–8 previous deliveries and Table 1. Parity distribution in the four groups, 678 deliveries
(4) grand grand multiparas (GGMP) with 9 or more previous deliver-
ies. The distribution of women according to parity number is shown
Group Parity n Frequency Cum. freq. Number per
in table 1.
% % group (%)
Duration of labor was defined according to O’Driscoll and
Maegher [6] as the time the laboring mother spent in the delivery unit
NP 0 87 12.8 12.8 87 (12.8%)
from the time of admission until delivery of her infant. Labor infor-
mation was collected from the woman’s partogram, the routine labor LMP 1 97 14.3 27.1
recording method used by doctors and midwives. The first stage was 2 87 12.8 40.0
subdivided into two phases, latent phase and active phase. The latent 3 79 11.7 51.8 263 (38.8%)
phase was defined as the time from admission until the first measure-
GMP 4 72 10.6 62.4
ment of 4 cm cervical dilatation. The active phase was estimated
5 75 11.1 73.5
from first measurement of 4 cm cervical dilatation to complete cervi-
6 59 8.7 82.2
cal dilatation. The second stage of labor lasted from first measure-
7 34 5.0 87.2
ment of complete cervical dilatation to delivery of the baby. The
8 32 4.7 91.7 272 (40.1%)
third stage of labor was not included in this study. Protracted cervical
dilatation was present when dilatation rate was ! 1.2 cm/h. Second- GGMP 9 21 3.1 94.8
ary arrest of cervical dilatation was present when no dilatation was 10 24 3.5 98.6
recorded during 2 h or more. Failure of descent during the first stage 11 8 1.2 99.6
was present when the presenting part remained at or above the pelvic 12 1 0.1 99.7
inlet until an intervention was performed. 13 1 0.1 99.9
16 1 0.1 100 56 (8.3%)
Statistical Analyses
Differences in duration of labor were analyzed with the Mann- NP = Nullipara, LMP = low multipara, GMP = grand multipara,
Whitney U-test. Student’s t-test was used for comparisons of means. GGMP = grand grand multipara.
Differences in frequencies were assessed by ¯2-test or Fischer’s exact

Table 2. Main characteristics and obstetric outcome

NP LMP GMP GGMP


(n = 87) (n = 263) (n = 272) (n = 56)

Age, years, mean (BSD) 20.9 (4.6) 24.4 (4.4) 29.8 (4.6) 34.5 (5.5)
Previous cesarean delivery, n (%) 16 (6.1) 10 (3.7) 3 (5.4)
Artificial rupture of membranes, n (%) 11 (12.6) 26 (9.8) 35 (12.9) 7 (12.5)
Labor enhancement with oxytocin, n (%) 36 (41.4) 42 (15.6) 49 (18.1) 4 (7.1)
Spontaneous vaginal delivery, n (%) 67 (77.0) 247 (93.9) 252 (92.6) 50 (89.3)
Vacuum extraction or forceps, n (%) 14 (16.1) 5 (1.9) 6 (2.2) 1 (1.8)
VBAC frequency, n (%) 13 (81.3) 7 (70.0) 3 (100)
Cesarean section, n (%) 6 (6.9) 11 (4.2) 14 (5.2) 5 (8.9)

VBAC = Vaginal birth after cesarean section.

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Fig. 1. Cervical dilatation on admission.
Frequency (%) of women admitted during
the latent phase of first stage of labor (right
panel) and during the second stage of labor
(left panel).

Fig. 2. Position of the presenting part (PP)


on admission. Frequency (%) of women ad-
mitted with PP at or above pelvic inlet (left
panel) and with PP at or below spinal level
(right panel). * p ! 0.05, ** p ! 0.01 vs. LMP
group as determined by ¯2-test.

cesarean delivery. Ten of these women (76.9%) had a suc- LMP, GMP and GGMP, respectively. On admission,
cessful vaginal birth after cesarean section (VBAC). The there was no difference in mean cervical dilatation be-
total VBAC frequency after one previous cesarean section tween LMP, GMP and GGMP. Eighteen percent of the
was 22 out of 23 (95.7%). The cesarean section rates were GMP and GGMP mothers were admitted during the sec-
not significantly different in the three multiparous groups ond stage of labor, not significantly different from 20% in
(table 2). The overall cesarean section rate was 5.3%. the LMP group (fig. 1). In the GGMP, the presenting part
There were six repeat operations, while in 30 women the was more frequently positioned at or above the pelvic
cesarean delivery was the woman’s first operative de- inlet on admission than in GMP and LMP (p ! 0.05 and
livery. p ! 0.01, respectively) (fig. 2). Furthermore, on admis-
The phase of labor and the position of the presenting sion, the presenting part was seldom positioned at or
part, on admission, are shown in figures 1 and 2. In the below the spinal level (fig. 2) in both GMP and GGMP
multiparous groups, an equal number were admitted dur- compared to LMP (p ! 0.01 and p ! 0.05, respectively)
ing the latent phase of labor, namely 41, 37 and 39% for (fig. 2).

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Fig. 3. Cumulative distributions of the dura-
tion of active phase of labor in 38 nullipara
(NP), 105 para 1–3 (LMP), 105 para 4–8
(GMP) and in 18 para 9–16 (GGMP). The
active phase was estimated from the first
measurement of 4 cm cervical dilatation to
complete cervical dilatation.

Table 3. Duration of labor (median)

NP LMP GMP GGMP

Normal first stage of labor, n (%) 44 (53.7)*** 204 (80.0) 197 (76.1) 32 (62.7)*
Active phase, h 5.0 (1.0–22.0)* 2.9 (0.1–24.0) 3.7 (0.1–25.5)* 4.7 (0.6–36.0)*
(min-max) n = 38 n = 105 n = 105 n = 18
Second stage of labor, h 0.5 (0.1–7.3)*** 0.2 (0.1–4.5) 0.2 (0.1–3.5) 0.2 (0.1–4.0)
(min-max) n = 56 n = 179 n = 185 n = 36
Duration of labor, h 5.8 (0.1–30.0)*** 2.0 (0.1–28.8) 2.3 (0.1–36.0) 3.1 (0.1–36.1)
(min-max) n = 87 n = 263 n = 272 n = 56

* p ! 0.05, ** p ! 0.01, *** p ! 0.001 vs. LMP group as determined by ¯2-test or by Mann-Whitney U-test.

Active Phase of Labor more often exceeded 12 h in GGMP (p = 0.01) and NP


In each of the three multiparous groups, the active (p ! 0.05) than in LMP (fig. 3). The GGMP women had
phase of labor was possible to assess in approximately their active phase of labor more often disturbed by an
40% of the women. These subgroups of women were all arrest of cervical dilatation as compared to LMP (p !
admitted during the latent phase of labor (fig. 1, table 3). 0.01) and GMP (p ! 0.01). Failure of descent during first
The median duration of the active phase of labor was lon- stage occurred more frequently in the GMP than in the
ger in GMP (p = 0.035) and in GGMP (p = 0.031) than in LMP (p = 0.03). This difference was not statistically sig-
LMP. In nulliparous women, the active phase was longer nificant in the GGMP (p = 0.07). In 11 multiparous wom-
than in LMP (p = 0.01) but not significantly longer than in en with failure of descent during first stage of labor in
GMP and GGMP. The cumulative frequency of the addition to secondary arrest of cervical dilatation, the
active phase of labor is shown in figure 3. The duration of cesarean section rate was 55% (table 4). In this group, the
the active phase more often exceeded 5 h in GGMP wom- median infant birth weight in 6 women having a cesarean
en than in LMP (p ! 0.05). Furthermore, the active phase delivery (3,275 g; min-max 2,700–3,650) did not differ in

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Fig. 4. Cumulative distributions of the dura-
tion of labor in 87 nullipara (NP), 263 para
1–3 (LMP), 272 para 4–8 (GMP) and in 56
para 9–16 (GGMP). Duration of labor was
defined as the time the laboring mother
spent in the delivery ward from time of
admission until delivery of her infant.

Table 4. Obstetric outcome in 84 women with failure of descent of the presenting part during normal and dysfunc-
tional first stage labor

Normal first stage labor Arrest of cervical Protracted cervical


(n = 40) dilatation (n = 11) dilatation (n = 33)
vaginal cesarean vaginal cesarean vaginal cesarean

NP (n = 9) 3 5 1
LMP (n = 25) 13 1 2 1 5 3
GMP (n = 41) 17 3 3 2 14 2
GGMP (n = 9) 3 3 3
Total, % 36 (90.0) 4 (10.0) 5 (45.5) 6 (54.5)**,+ 27 (81.8) 6 (18.2)

** p ! 0.01 vs. normal first stage labor as determined by Fisher’s exact test.
+ p ! 0.05 vs. protracted cervical dilatation as determined by Fisher’s exact test.

comparison to that of the 5 women who delivered vaginal- Duration of Labor


ly (3,200 g; min-max 2,600–3,800). The median duration of labor, assessed from the time
of admission of the woman until delivery of her infant,
Second Stage of Labor lasted 2.0 h for LMP, 2.3 h for GMP and 3.1 h for GGMP.
The median second stage of labor lasted 0.2 h in all The difference between GGMP and LMP was not statisti-
three multiparous groups. The NP had longer second cally significant (p = 0.16). Figure 4 shows the cumulative
stage labors than LMP, GMP and GGMP (p ! 0.001, p ! frequencies of duration of labor. Fewer GGMP had deliv-
0.001 and p = 0.001, respectively). Between the multipa- ered after 4, 8 and 12 h than had LMP (p ! 0.02, p ! 0.05
rous groups there were no significant differences regard- and p ! 0.05, respectively). For GMP, the same difference
ing duration of second stage or the frequency of pro- in comparison with LMP reached statistical significance
tracted second stage. The frequency of forceps and vacu- only at 12 h (p ! 0.05). Duration of labor exceeded 16 h in
um deliveries was equally low in the multiparous groups, 8.0, 2.3, 4.4 and 5.2% of the NP, LMP, GMP and GGMP,
approximately 2%. respectively (fig. 4).

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Table 5. Fetal weight and Apgar score at
5 min (mean B SD) NP LMP GMP GGMP

Fetal weight, g 2,908B358** 3,078B525 3,200B508 3,350B528**,+


Apgar score 5 min 9.3B1.6 9.6B1.5 9.6B1.4 9.5B1.7

** p ! 0.01 vs. LMP group as determined by t-test.


+ p ! 0.05 vs. GMP group as determined by t-test.

In multiparous women, duration of the active phase of KKH, the women labored without any form of conduc-
labor and duration of labor increased by parity (rp = tion analgesia, no pain relief other than nitrous oxide and,
0.255, p ! 0.001 and rp = 0.122, p = 0.003, respectively). occasionally, opiates were offered. The husband or other
Oxytocin for labor enhancement was given to 16% of the relatives were not allowed to visit the labor room, conse-
LMP, 18% of the GMP and to 7% of the GGMP (table 2). quently, the mother’s emotional support was given by the
The differences were not significant. The mean birth midwife and the obstetrician.
weights of the infants are shown in table 5. The differ- The obstetric course of the GMP regarding duration
ences in mean birth weight between GGMP and LMP and and disturbances of labor has been scantily reported in
GGMP and GMP were statistically significant (p ! 0.01 previous studies. On the contrary, there are many reports
and p ! 0.05). Infants’ birth weight increased by parity on the NPs’ labor [1]. During the first delivery, there is an
(rp = 0.221, p ! 0.001). The woman who gave birth to her increased risk of dystocia and operative delivery as com-
17th baby delivered the heaviest infant in the study pared to the following three or four labors [1]. The present
(4,750 g). The stillbirth ratio was close to 1% in all four study indicates that after nine deliveries a woman re-
groups and 1.0% in all the 678 deliveries. sumes a similar risk of dystocia as during her first deliv-
ery. Sharfman and Silverstein [14] reviewed the files of
403 women with parity 7 or higher. In their group, 45%
Discussion were delivered within 6 h while in 23% labor exceeded
10 h. The corresponding finding in the present study was
During the last decades, an increased interest in the 74 and 14%, respectively. Evaldson [7] reported a total
GMP woman is mirrored in a number of articles address- frequency of disturbances during labor of 36.7% in primi-
ing this topic ‘the dangerous multipara’ [4, 5, 7–10]. Most paras, 22.2% in para 2–5 and 35.7% in para 6. The similar
of these studies have confirmed an increased risk of ane- frequencies for the NP and the GMP regarding dystocia
mia, hypertension, preeclampsia, placenta praevia, uter- are in agreement with the present study.
ine rupture, abnormal presentation and operative deliv- The GMP women were not admitted earlier or later
ery in pregnant women with high parity [4, 8, 10]. High during the first stage than the LMP. According to Hen-
parity has consequently been related to an increased neo- dricks et al. [15] and to Juntunen and Kirkinen [16], a
natal morbidity and perinatal mortality, often combined difference in duration of labor between NPs and GMPs
with low socioeconomic status and increasing age [11, 12]. lies mainly in the latent phase [15, 16] and the second
The present investigation was carried out in a rapidly stage [15] of labor. The present study indicates a differ-
developing country with no major economic problems ence in the active phase since this phase was longer in
where the government financially supported large fami- GMP and GGMP than in LMP but not significantly dif-
lies. Due to religious reasons, female smoking was pro- ferent from the NP. The mechanism behind this finding is
hibited and uncommon. Alcoholic beverages in any form not clear. Hypothetically, a reduced contractive force of
were not permitted. In Sweden, Lyrenäs et al. [13] found the myometrium in the GMP may follow after numerous
the mean age of the Swedish primipara to be 25.4 years. previous labors. In GMPs with protracted first stage
The mean age of the GMP (para 4–8) in the present study labor, the woman usually resumed normal progress after
was 29.8, only 4 years older. Socioeconomic factors and receiving intravenous fluid of glucose and, occasionally,
age can thus barely contribute to a major bias in the amniotomy. Secondary arrest of cervical dilatation, which
present study. The delivery unit equipment was compara- has been reported as a major cause of dystocia in nullipa-
ble to that found in western developed countries. In the rous women [1], was also more common in the GGMP

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group. In GMP and GGMP, descent of the presenting duction analgesia and an equal frequency of oxytocin use
part was often absent during the first stage of labor. When in labor enhancement will minimize the bias in this study.
amniotomy was performed after full cervical dilatation It cannot be ruled out that a possible fear of labor
and the preceding first stage of labor was normal or pro- enhancement in the GMP and GGMP may have contrib-
tracted, a rapid progress with descent of the presenting uted to the equal use of oxytocin. Consequently, 1 of the 9
part and vaginal delivery followed in most cases (table 4). GGMP with failure of descent had labor enhanced by
In contrast to Juntunen and Kirkinen [16], who reported a oxytocin. Furthermore, only 1 of the 11 GGMP with pro-
similar observation, the frequency of deep occiput trans- tracted first stage labor received oxytocin. This circum-
verse positions in GMP and GGMP were low. If, instead, stance together with increasing birth weights in GMP and
labor had been accompanied by an arrest of cervical dila- in GGMP may, to some extent, have contributed to the
tation in addition to failure of descent, only 36% of the longer active phase of labor found in these two groups.
women were delivered vaginally after amniotomy (ta- In conclusion, the present study indicates a successive
ble 4). In the complete material, 19 out of 36 cesarean sec- prolonging of labor by parity in multiparous women. A
tions (53%) were carried out in laboring women with fail- combination of factors, some of which are yet unknown,
ure of descent. causing inefficient uterine contractions together with in-
Cesarean delivery was rarely the woman’s choice in the creasing birth weight of infants born to high parity women
study hospital. Trial of labor was instead the mode of are the most probable contributors to the recorded distur-
practice after two and even more previous operative bances of GMPs’ labor. Failure of descent of the present-
deliveries. Consequently, all 3 GGMP who were allowed ing part during the first stage of labor in addition to a sec-
trial of labor after a previous single cesarean birth deliv- ondary arrest of cervical dilatation was associated with a
ered vaginally. high cesarean section rate.
The present study indicates that the GMP woman will
face an increased frequency of dystocia during the first
stage of labor such as arrest of cervical dilatation and fail- Acknowledgments
ure of descent of presenting part. Factors that have been
This study could not have been carried out without the assistance
associated with the progress of labor are epidural analge-
of Dr. B. Svanberg, Dr. P. Kasturi, Dr. A. Watfa and Miss C. Creed,
sia [17], oxytocin [18], fetal weight [19] and the presence which is acknowledged and appreciated.
of emotional support during labor [6]. The absence of con-

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