Background: Precise evaluation of labour progresses can help mothers to be
consulted on time and decrease maternal and neonatal morbidities. The purple line is non
invasive methods to assess labour progress. The current study aimed to assign appearance
percentage of the purple line during the first stage of labour, as well as the accuracy of the
purple line to predict labour progress. Design: Longitudinal design was adopted. A purposive
sampling method has been employed to recruit 120 labouring women at the obstetric
department in El-Nabawy El Mohandes Hospital, Fayoum. Three tools of data collection
were used: structure interviewing questionnaire, purple line observation record and
partograph. Results: revealed that, the purple line appears among about four fifth of the total
sample. A medium positive association was found among the purple line length, dilatations
of the cervix and fetal stations. The purple line appearance in the expectation of labour
progress had 87.91% sensitivity, 39.53% specificity and 85.25% accuracy. In addition, the
purple line was more significantly in a spontaneous labouring woman and no significant
association between parity, women age, BMI, fetal birth weight and the existence of the
purple lines. Conclusion: The purple line is useful in assisting the health care providers in
assessing and determining labour progress and lessen the number of vaginal examinations,
particularly at consideration of females who refuse or feel that the examining intrusive.
Recommendation: Integration between vaginal examination and purple line to evaluate the
labour progress to reduce the vaginal examination rate and its risk. Further research still
needed to identify the accuracy of other noninvasive methods to assess the labour progress.