Women's experience with early labour management at home vs. in hospital: A randomised controlled trial.

Abstract:

OBJECTIVE:

to compare experiences with early labour assessment and support at home vs. by telephone.

DESIGN:

a randomised controlled trial of nurse home visits vs. telephone support for assessment and support of women in early labour.

SETTING:

hospitals serving obstetrical populations in metropolitan and suburban Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Participants: healthy nulliparous women in labour at term with uncomplicated pregnancies participating in the third and fourth year of the trial. Intervention: women were randomised to receive early labour assessment and support at home (n=241) and or to receive assessment and support by telephone (n=182). Measurement: the Early Labour Experience Questionnaire (ELEQ), a 26-item self-administered questionnaire that measures women''s experience with early labour care across three domains: emotional well-being, emotional distress and perceptions of nursing care.

FINDINGS:

women who received home visits rated their early labour experience more positively overall compared to women who received telephone support (103.14±12.45 vs. 99.67±13.11, p<.01)including perceptions of nursing care that they received (38.64±2.90 vs. 36.82±4.09, p<.001). However, women''s affective experiences did not differ. Key conclusions: early labour nursing care provided at home is associated with a more positive experience of early labour compared to telephone support.