A new test could help predict which women will have a natural birth or will need a Caesarean section.

Scientists found that when high levels of lactic acid are measured in the amniotic fluid, it is more likely the mother will need a Caesarean section.

The test is already being administered in a number of European hospitals.

Over half of the caesareans in the U.K. are emergency rather than elective procedures.

Swedish company Obstecare helped developed the test with the help of research led by Liverpool University and Liverpool Women’s Hospital.

The study found that the uterus produces lactic acid as other muscles do when they work hard, but the substance starts to inhibit contractions once it reaches a certain level.

The hormone oxytocin is usually administered in cases of slow labors to stimulate the uterus into contracting.  However, not all women respond to this drug.
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Johan Ubby of Obstecare told BBC News that the test should help doctors establish which women will go on to deliver vaginally, as low levels of lactic acid suggest the uterus could produce the contractions needed to help push out the baby.

“But a high level of lactic acid in the amniotic fluid indicates that the uterus is exhausted. To stimulate this kind of labor with an oxytocin infusion would be like asking a marathon runner to run an extra 10,000 meters after he or she has passed the finish line.”

He told BBC that the system of testing should reduce the number of caesareans for women who do not need them and accelerate them for those that do in order to help “avoid the risk of complications from a long birth and limit unnecessary suffering.”

Professor Donald Peebles, a spokesman for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and consultant at University College, London, told BBC the test was a “nice idea.”

“I can definitely see the logic, and it would be straightforward to carry out. I would be interested in seeing a large prospective study where you could see the impact it had on the management of labor and whether overall outcomes were improved.”

Professor Susan Wray of the Center for Better Births told BBC that one next step would be determine how to “wash away” the acid that appears to inhibit labor.

“Prolonged labor occurs in one in 10 births and it’s particularly a problem for first time mums. The truth is there has not been a new drug to treat problems in labor for 60 years – pharmaceutically, there’s been nothing new since oxytocin.

“It’s high time for this to move up the agenda. We simply do not always give women’s health the priority it deserves.”

The test has already started being used in hospitals in Sweden, Norway and Belgium.