The views of pregnant women, midwives, and a women's panel on intrapartum ultrasound research: A pilot study.

Background: Ultrasound is increasingly used in labour; however, little data exist on attitudes to its use. We sought to analyse and compare the views of pregnant women, midwives, and a women's panel on the value and use of ultrasound in labour.

Methods: Focus groups involving a short presentation on ultrasound, questionnaire, and a question and answer session were held with groups of pregnant women, midwives at 2 inner-city maternity units, and a RCOG online Women's Panel.

Time to delivery based on sonographic assessment prior to forceps and vacuum.

Introduction: To compare the duration of vacuum and forceps delivery in relation to ultrasound assessment of fetal head position and station.

Methods: A prospective single-centre cohort study in nulliparous women at term with prolonged second stage of labour. Fetal head position was determined using transabdominal ultrasound and station as head-perineum distance (HPD) from transperineal ultrasound prior to an instrument.

Ultrasound is better tolerated than vaginal examination in and before labour.

Background: Intrapartum ultrasound has been proposed as a method of assessing labour progress but its acceptability has not been comprehensively assessed.

Aims: We evaluated the acceptability of intrapartum ultrasound in women having vaginal examination (VE) and ultrasound (US) assessment (transabdominal (TA) and transperineal (TP)) prior to delivery, with and without regional analgesia (RA).

Materials And Methods: Women at 24-42 weeks gestation were included in a prospective observational cohort study.