Doctors should not intervene to speed up a woman’s labour unless there are real risks of complications, says the WHO. overturns decades of previous advice, which said that labour which progressed at a slower rate than 1cm of cervical dilation per hour in the first stage was risky. Women are often given the drug oxytocin to speed up labour and end up with epidurals because of the pain, followed by forceps or vacuum deliveries and in some cases a caesarean section.  Many women want a natural birth and prefer to rely on their bodies to give birth to their baby without the aid of medical intervention.

If labour is progressing normally, and the woman and her baby are in good condition, they do not need to receive additional interventions to accelerate labour.