Supporting women in labour

Headnote

ABSTRACT

Background: Descriptive studies of women's childbirth experience have suggested four dimensions to the support that women want in labour: emotional support, informational support, physical support, and advocacy.

Aim : The aim of this review was to identify practical points for supporting women in labour.

Methods: A thorough literature search was performed in different nursing and medical databases, which included searches in PubMed, Cochrane Reviews, Cinhal and also Google, using relevant with this review key words.

Results: Women in labor have a profound need for companionship, empathy and help. Continuous support appears to have a greater beneficial impact than intermittent support. Women's expectations of labour as a whole appear to be of more importance to their overall satisfaction with their labour experience than the perceived effectiveness of pain management. Health care providers are in a unique position to educate prospective parents about the importance of social support around the time of childbirth and may play a critical role in mobilizing support systems for new mothers.

Conclusions: Emotional, physical, and informational support is positively related to mother's mental and physical health around the time of childbirth.

Key words: Support, labour, health-care professionals.

INTRODUCTION

The childbirth experience is multidimensional, and therefore difficult to describe and explain. Studies of it have produced inconsistent findings, and the phenomenon is often confused with satisfaction with the care provided.1

Labor support is a term used to describe the presence of an empathic person who offers advice, information, comfort measures, and other forms of tangible assistance to help a woman cope with the stress of labor and birth.2 Women in labor have a profound need for companionship, empathy and help.3,4 Emotional support in the form of encouragement, praise, reassurance, listening and a continuous physical presence have all been recognized as key components of intrapartum care. Support in labour is a crucial component of sensitive and responsive woman-centred care; however this aspect of core midwifery input equally applies to the needs of the woman's birth partner. In particular, the support needs of fathers-to-be, whose own emotional, psychological and physical needs can so easily be overlooked, neglected or dismissed.5

Methods

A systematic review was carried out in different nursing and medical databases, such as PubMed, Cochrane Reviews, Cinhal and also Google. The...