NCT02478385

Birth Environment of the Future

Birth Environment of the Future - a Randomised Controlled Study

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 680 (actual)
• Sponsor: Herning Hospital · Academic / Other
• Sex: Female
• Age: 18 Years – 45 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

The main purpose of this study is to explore the impact of the birth environment on women's birth experience and relevant birth outcomes in the experimental Labour room compared to a standard Labour room.

Detailed description

In the last decade, there has been an increased interest in exploring the impact of the birth environment on midwifery practice and the women's birth experiences. Results from these studies show that a home-like birth environment has positive effects on both midwifery practice and the birth experience. The hormone oxytocin that causes contractions during labour may play an important role in this context. The hormone is released when being in a safe, secure and confident environment. Therefore, it is a reasonable assumption that the birth environment also has an impact on birth outcomes. To investigate this assumption one traditional labour room was transformed to an experimental labour room. The design of the room is inspired by knowledge from evidence-based healthcare design, which describes bringing nature into the room. Furthermore, it is possible for the parents to design their own birth setting by choosing atmosphere through sound, light and nature scenes.

Conditions

• Pregnancy

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Supportive care in a specially designed labour room	Light and sound effects, homelike design in furniture and wall paper, sound insulation of walls, covering medical devices in walls, apparatus, and cupboards

Timeline

• Start date: 2015-05-01
• Primary completion: 2018-06-01
• Completion: 2018-08-01
• First posted: 2015-06-23
• Last updated: 2019-02-26

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Denmark