BACKGROUND: Prolonged labour is still a common problem in our environment and its sequelae remain an important cause of maternal morbidity and mortality. With the introduction of active management of labour, the incidence of prolonged labour and its sequelae have been significantly reduced. Even at this, studies continue to explore ways to shorten labour and improve feto-maternal outcome. Some previous studies have confirmed Hyoscine Bromide in increasing cervical dilatation rate and shortening Active Phase Labour without untoward effects on the mother and baby. However Hyoscine Bromide is not commonly used for labour management in most supervised labour wards in spite of the published advantages. Hence, this study was designed to assess the effect of Hyoscine Bromide in the active phase in a randomised study to test the claims in previous studies. OBJECTIVE: To determine the efficacy and safety of Hyoscine Butylbromide (in the form of Buscopan® from Boehringer Ingelheim Limited, Germany) in accelerating the active phase of labour in nulliparous women. METHOD: A randomised double-blind study to be carried out on 128 nulliparas admitted in spontaneous active phase labour. The women were recruited based on inclusion and exclusion criteria and randomised into study and control groups. Either 40mg Buscopan or 2ml of injection water as placebo was given intravenously in two divided doses, given 30 minutes apart. Cervical dilatation rate and duration of active phase and second stage of labour was then recorded. Also ii to be determined were the rate of caesarean section, blood loss at delivery, and APGAR scores in the neonates in the two groups.