USE OF PAPERLESS PARTOGRAPH IN MANAGEMENT OF LABOUR

Background:InIndia,a country with low resources, problems of lack of trained staff, large number of deliveries, lack of basic facilities for monitoring of foetuslead to challenges faced by treating obstetrician. Partograph though a simple tool is underused.Several factors have been implicated for this and its incorrect use at all centres providing maternity care.These are lack of knowledge,improper training,graphs non availability, wrong perceptions regarding it, huge patient number, shortage of staff, lack of monitoring and unsupportivebehaviour among some of the health care givers. Dr. Debdas proposed the Paperless Partograph to be used by clinicians in poor resource areas. Material and Methods Women were enrolled and randomly divided into two -A and B of 520 each. Group A women were monitored with Modified WHO Partograph.In Group B,once the women reached cervical dilatation of four cm or more, Alert ETD (Estimated Time of Delivery) and Action ETD were calculatedand monitored as per paperless partograph protocol. Results:Paperless Partograph can be easily used in place of Modified WHO partograph in low resource and high patient load settings as the time taken from 4 cm to full dilatation was similar in both the graphs and the number of PV examinations done and time taken to plot the graph was less in Paperless Partograph than Modified WHO Partograph. Conclusion: Paperless Partograph is a simple 20 second tool which can be used to monitor labour progress in high patient load settings and peripheral centres.