Early Labour and Maternity Care: Research for Practice

This accessible text highlights what we know about "early labour". Drawing on cutting-edge research and the expertise of an international team of authors, it looks at how maternity services currently care for women in the early phase of labour and discusses where and how this care could be improved.

The early phase of labour is an area of tension for women, midwives and other healthcare professionals. Current services often fail women, putting the onus on them to decide when to come into hospital and then sending them home ‘not in labour’, creating a revolving door that can lead to anxiety, stress, fear and negative communication between women and midwives. This book explores why this happens and the challenges that it places on women and the midwives that care for them. It works to define what "early labour" is and teases out some of the issues that definitions of the early phase of labour raise for both woman-centred care and the management of services. Presenting innovative approaches to practice in this contested area, this book includes vignettes from women exploring their experiences of the early phase of labour in different models of care. Key point summaries and boxed recommendations for practice help readers transfer their learning to practice.

This is an essential read for all midwifery students and staff. It is an important reference for paramedics, obstetricians, and other health professionals working in maternity care.

Vanora Hundley is Professor of Midwifery at Bournemouth University. She has worked as a nurse and midwife in the UK, Hungary and the USA. This includes working with the World Health Organization over the last decade – she is currently a member of the WHO Technical Advisory Group on WHO Maternal and Perinatal Health Guidelines. Vanora has led a range of studies in the reproductive health field both in the UK and internationally. She conducted one of the first randomised controlled trials of midwife-led care. She currently co-leads the Centre for Midwifery and Women’s Health at Bournemouth University, where she has established a programme of maternity research with women and families, including around the early phase of labour. Vanora is passionate about supporting clinicians and practitioners to develop expertise in research. She is a capacity lead for the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR)’s first Challenge (to reduce maternity inequalities) and a mentor in the NIHR Academy Mentoring Programme.

Helen Cheyne is Professor of Maternal and Infant Health Research at the University of Stirling. She qualified first as a nurse and then as a midwife in 1981, working as a midwife in Glasgow and in rural Scotland. Her research interest in early labour began with a series of studies on midwives' decision-making through labour. Her PhD research involved the development and testing of a decision support tool for the diagnosis of labour. She was one of the founding members of the International Early Labour Research Group. Over her long research career she has undertaken research on a wide range of topics relating to women’s maternity care experiences and the delivery of maternity services, including perinatal mental health, postnatal care and induction of labour as well as her continuing interest in care in the early phase of labour.