Comparison of midwife-led and consultant-led care of healthy women at low risk of childbirth complications in the Republic of Ireland: a randomised trial

BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth

Research Article

Mary Reilly¹  Alan Finan¹  Patricia Hughes²  Roisin Maguire³  Miriam Doyle⁴  Shane Higgins⁵  Colette McCann⁶  Siobhan Gormally⁶  Declan Devane⁷  Cecily Begley⁸  Mike Clarke⁹ 

[1] Cavan General Hospital, Cavan, Ireland;Coombe Women and Infant's University Hospital, Dublin 2, Ireland;Louth County Hospital, Dublin Road, Dundalk, Co. Louth, Ireland;Midland Regional Hospital, Portlaoise, Ireland;National Maternity Hospital, Dublin 2, Ireland;Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, Ireland;School of Nursing and Midwifery, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland;School of Nursing and Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland;School of Nursing and Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland;All-Ireland Hub for Trials Methodology Research, Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK;

关键词: Cochrane Review;    Caesarean Section Rate;    Health Service Executive;    Maternal Satisfaction;    Special Care Baby Unit;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2393-11-85

 received in 2011-07-25, accepted in 2011-10-29,  发布年份 2011

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundNo midwifery-led units existed in Ireland before 2004. The aim of this study was to compare midwife-led (MLU) versus consultant-led (CLU) care for healthy, pregnant women without risk factors for labour and delivery.MethodsAn unblinded, pragmatic randomised trial was designed, funded by the Health Service Executive (Dublin North-East). Following ethical approval, all women booking prior to 24 weeks of pregnancy at two maternity hospitals with 1,300-3,200 births annually in Ireland were assessed for trial eligibility.1,653 consenting women were centrally randomised on a 2:1 ratio to MLU or CLU care, (1101:552). 'Intention-to-treat' analysis was used to compare 9 key neonatal and maternal outcomes.ResultsNo statistically significant difference was found between MLU and CLU in the seven key outcomes: caesarean birth (163 [14.8%] vs 84 [15.2%]; relative risk (RR) 0.97 [95% CI 0.76 to 1.24]), induction (248 [22.5%] vs 138 [25.0%]; RR 0.90 [0.75 to 1.08]), episiotomy (126 [11.4%] vs 68 [12.3%]; RR 0.93 [0.70 to 1.23]), instrumental birth (139 [12.6%] vs 79 [14.3%]; RR 0.88 [0.68 to 1.14]), Apgar scores < 8 (10 [0.9%] vs 9 [1.6%]; RR 0.56 [0.23 to 1.36]), postpartum haemorrhage (144 [13.1%] vs 75 [13.6%]; RR 0.96 [0.74 to 1.25]); breastfeeding initiation (616 [55.9%] vs 317 [57.4%]; RR 0.97 [0.89 to 1.06]). MLU women were significantly less likely to have continuous electronic fetal monitoring (397 [36.1%] vs 313 [56.7%]; RR 0.64 [0.57 to 0.71]), or augmentation of labour (436 [39.6%] vs 314 [56.9%]; RR 0.50 [0.40 to 0.61]).ConclusionsMidwife-led care, as practised in this study, is as safe as consultant-led care and is associated with less intervention during labour and delivery.Trial registration numberISRCTN: ISRCTN14973283

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Begley et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2011