Objective To investigate the effect of feeding during labour on obstetric and neonatal outcomes. Design Prospective randomised controlled trial. Setting Birth centre in London teaching hospital. Participants 2426 nulliparous, non-diabetic women at term, with a singleton cephalic presenting fetus and in labour with a cervical dilatation of less than 6 cm. Intervention Consumption of a light diet or water during labour. Main outcome measures The primary outcome measure was spontaneous vaginal delivery rate. Other outcomes measured included duration of labour, need for augmentation of labour, instrumental and caesarean delivery rates, incidence of vomiting, and neonatal outcome. Results The spontaneous vaginal delivery rate was the same in both groups (44%; relative risk 0.99, 95% confidence interval 0.90 to 1.08). No clinically important differences were found in the duration of labour (geometric mean: eating, 597 min v water, 612 min; ratio of geometric means 0.98, 95% confidence interval 0.93 to 1.03), the caesarean delivery rate (30% v 30%; relative risk 0.99, 0.87 to 1.12), or the incidence of vomiting (35% v 34%; relative risk 1.05, 0.9 to 1.2). Neonatal outcomes were also similar.

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Gynzecologist to the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh; Honorary Fellow of the American Gynaecological Society ; Lecturer on Midwifery and Diseases of Women, School of the Royal Colleges. Edinburgh. THE tuberose fleshy mole, often termed shortly the fleshy mole, is a most striking form of abortion, and is second in interest and importance to the hydatid form alone. Its external appearance is not only characteristic, but the specimens are remarkably similar to one another in many respects. Thus, the period of gestation at which the condition occurs (second to third month), the size of the mass expelled, and of the placental portion, the characteristic elevations below the chorion, are almost invariably the same in all the specimens, and suggest to one's mind that there must be some definite mechanical cause bringing about such similarity.