Obstetrics and Gynecology International

Special Issue on
Anthropological and Biological Perspectives of Labor
and Delivery

Call for Papers

There is an on-going argument on the best approach to
manage labor and delivery. Some claim that medicalization
can do better in any laboring woman than labor and delivery
mechanisms selected by evolution, and others favor empow-
ering its natural unfolding and claim medical intervention
only when necessary. This debate stems from dierent cultures,
health care organizations, opinions, and even emotions.
Although labor and delivery are by far the first indications
to access health care providers, there still is a huge gap
between scientific knowledge and clinical practice. The aim
of this special issue is to cover neglected or controversial
scientific backgrounds, throw a bridge from science over
the data free zone, and reach out management decision. System at http://mts.hindawi.com/submit/journals/ogi/pela/
Potential topics include, but are not limited to:
Focusing on the lessons, we can derive from an
anthropologic perspective of the evolution of labor and
delivery the following. What is the role of labor in other
mammalians and anthropoid monkeys? What is the
impact of stress on the relationship between uterine
contractions and cervical dilatation? How is delivery in
mammalians with dierent head to pelvis proportions
and passage negotiations?
The forgotten role played by the placental metabolism
during labor and its relationship with the whole story
of its development and chronic and subacute injuries,
including the impact of oxidative stress in labour, on a
dierent resilient machinery as it was built in the enrico.ferrazzi@unimi.it
first trimester and remodelled throughout pregnancy
A possible dierent envision of cervical dilatation
other than the prevailing concept that it should be
clinically constrained into population based statis-
tics. Is the cervix the controller of labor duration?
Or, is the cervix just the final pathway of much
more important determinantsmechanical, neuroen-
docrine, metabolic, and so forththat we simply
forget to diagnose when confronted with the phantom
of cervical dystocia. In essence is cervical assessment
a screening test or diagnostic examination? If this is
the case, how can we prescribe therapies based on
screening results?
The new technologies at dierent levels of clinical
implementation that may objectively support our
critical decision during labor and the passive phase and
the active phase of the second stage of labor
Before submission authors should carefully read over
the journals Author Guidelines, which are located at
http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ogi/guidelines/. Prospec-
tive authors should submit an electronic copy of their com-
plete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking
according to the following timetable:
Manuscript Due Friday, 25 October 2013
First Round of Reviews Friday, 17 January 2014
Publication Date Friday, 14 March 2014
Lead Guest Editor
Enrico Ferrazzi, Department of Woman, Mother and
Neonate, Buzzi Childrens Hospital, Istituti Clinici di
Perfezionamento, Biological and Clinical School of
Medicine, University of Milan, Milan, Italy;
Guest Editors
Antonio Barbera, Swan Mountain Womens Center, 16172
Highway 9, Breckenridge, CO 80424 (970) 423-8840, USA;
antoniobarbera@me.com
Karen Rosenberg, Department of Anthropology,
University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA;
krr@udel.edu

Hindawi Publishing Corporation

http://www.hindawi.com/