Mechanisms of unassisted vaginal labour and birth

Welcome to this Core Knowledge course on Mechanisms of normal labour and birth.

When you have completed this course, you will be able to:

• describe the anatomy of the fetal skull and female pelvis that is relevant to labour
• understand changes in the uterus during pregnancy
• understand the factors involved in the onset of labour
• understand the initiation of human labour – molecular mechanisms
• outline the mechanism of normal labour and delivery
• understand how to monitor progress in labour.

Note that the assessment of fetal wellbeing in labour, pain relief in labour and perineal trauma are discussed in other RCOG eLearning tutorials.