Triage may be defined as the assessment of patients to determine both nature of and need for urgency of treatment required. While it is commonly thought of as identifying a hierarchy of priority within multiple patients, in labour ward it is the system by which the medical needs and management requirements of specific patients within a particular clinical area are categorised to ensure appropriate allocation of resources, both for individual patients and in the context of the whole ward and the resource pool. In an obstetric setting, triage is not only the principal gateway into labour ward for emergency attenders who require unscheduled attention in a maternity unit but it also remains key to the ongoing management of all patients on the labour ward itself. Effective and efficient triage is considered a key competency for labour ward clinicians and, indeed, prioritisation of the ‘Labour Ward Board’ is a favourite examination question for trainees about to become specialists.