In the late 1990s, UT Southwestern obstetricians took on a simple question: are outcomes any different for women if they walked around during early labor or stayed in bed? The clinician-researchers launched a formal trial, using pedometers, patient-satisfaction questionnaires and other measures. They found that it didn't matter much one way or another and concluded that the laboring woman should do whatever feels most comfortable for her. A few years later, the physicians took on a more complicated situation that involved a device designed to detect fetal distress during labor by measuring oxygen levels in the baby's blood. Again, they found that the machine made little difference. But in this case, the findings prevented an intrusive, expensive and ineffective technology from being used unnecessarily. In this lecture, Steven Bloom, M.D., will discuss how the UT Southwestern Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, with the largest childbirth service in the United States -- about 16,000 births per year -- has come to be known as the conscience of American obstetrics for its work in establishing scientifically based care.