Effect of Psychoprophylaxis (Lamaze Preparation) on Labor and Delivery in Primiparas

Abstract

To investigate whether "prepared-childbirth" courses offer measurable physical advantages, we compared the labor and delivery characteristics of 129 primiparas who had completed ante-partum Lamaze-training psychoprophylaxis classes with an equal number of matched controls who had not. The former were given narcotics less frequently during labor (P<0.001), received conduction anesthesia less often (P<0.001), and had a higher frequency of spontaneous vaginal deliveries (P<0.001) than the control patients. However, these differences had no apparent effects on the length of labor, number or type of maternal complications, frequency of fetal distress, mean Apgar scores, or neonatal problems. (N Engl J Med 294:1205–1207, 1976)