FDA provides LMS clearance for standalone offering of CALM Curve

Now we have computerized modeling of labor providing "consistent and objective evaluation of labor progress."

I think I'm completely creeped out.

You're going to hook me up to god knows how many machines, feed vital statistics into a software model and predict exactly how it is that I'm going to labor and progress. Note please that this company is trying to appeal to both sides of the argument:

In some cases, it can therefore be used to confirm the need for a cesarean for women demonstrating symptoms of dystocia (slow labour). In other cases, as concluded in cross border clinical studies involving some 11,000 first time mothers, the use of CALM Curve, when introduced, contributed to a safe fall in cesarean rates from 19.54% to 16.62% at 12 months (P equals 0.00006). CALM Curve can provide meaningful assistance to U.S. clinical teams where cesarean section rates exceeded 29% in 2005.

Like I said, I think I'm completely creeped out. What happened to mothers helping each other with birth? I know, it's a very emotional question, and maternity outcomes have improved since we began introducing some medical advances to the process of labor and delivery. But, the decline in maternal mortality in the United States has leveled off since 1982. We've thrown some awesome technology at the problem, and serious dollars too, but we have not improved outcomes for mothers since 1982.

The best "new advance" we've introduced lately is the doula.

In the late 1970s, when Drs. John Kennell and Marshall Klaus investigated ways to enhance maternal-infant bonding they found, almost accidentally, that introducing a doula into the labor room not only improved the bond between mother and infant, but also seemed to decrease the incidence of complications.(6,7) Since their original studies, published in 1980 and 1986, numerous scientific trials have been conducted in many countries, comparing usual care with usual care plus a doula.

Women cared for during labor by a birth doula, compared to those receiving “usual care” were

• 26% less likely to give birth by cesarean section
• 41% less likely to give birth with a vacuum extractor of forceps
• 28% less likely to use any analgesia or anesthesia
• 33% less likely to be dissatisfied or negatively rate their birth experience