Introduction:
The partogram is usually a pre-printed paper form, on which labour observations are recorded. 

Aim:
To assess the standards of maintaining the National Partogram in University Obstetrics Unit, Colombo North Teaching Hospital, Ragama, Sri Lanka.

Material and methods:
Retrospective analysis of conveniently selected partograms was conducted between November and December 2016. Gold standard is 100% accurate maintenance of the components of the partogram and 100% accurate interventions whenever it is necessary.

Results and discussion:
Total of 121 partograms were studied. Mean (SD) age was 28.3 years (5.6). Mean parity was 1.6 (0.8). Mean gestational age was 38.4 (2.6). In total, 103 (85.1%) women had a vaginal delivery. Those who had special problems, only 6 out of 43 had written special instructions. Out of all, 24 (31.2%) had substandard documentation of contractions. Out of all partograms with documented duration of contractions, 17 (21.8%) had substandard documentation. Fetal heart rate properly documented in 94 (77.7%). Action and alert lines have been drawn in 24 (63.2%) high risk pregnancies and have been drawn only in 1 case (16.7%) of trial of scar out of 6. However, only 115 (95.0%) had a good 1-minute and 119 (98.4%) had a good 5-minute APGAR score.

Conclusions:
Although neonatal outcome is satisfactory, standard documentation of partogram is poor. This needs to be improved by thorough education and frequent auditing. After this audit, a specific seminar was conducted using SLCOG partogram training module.