Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T20:21:43.475Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

CHAPTER 10 - Intrapartum care for women assessed as low risk in labour

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2014

By
Mervi Jokinen
Edited by
Tahir Mahmood ,
Philip Owen ,
Sabaratnam Arulkumaran  and
Charnjit Dhillon
Mervi Jokinen
Affiliation:
Royal College of Midwives
Tahir Mahmood
Affiliation:
Forth Park Hospital, Kilcaldy
Philip Owen
Affiliation:
Glasgow Royal Infirmary
Sabaratnam Arulkumaran
Affiliation:
St George’s University London
Charnjit Dhillon
Affiliation:
Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, London
Get access

Summary

This chapter explores how policies, current standards and practices can be integrated to improve women's access and promote confidence and trust in the services provided as well as having a maternity workforce which use resources effectively. For safety and quality of care, protocols and care pathways are recommended, but midwives and obstetricians need to remember that each woman's care is individual and her journey through the labour is dynamic. The professionals agree that each organisation should have locally agreed clinical guidelines for midwifery-led labour care for low-risk women. Service planning has to support both low-risk and high-risk labour care pathways with equity. Any birth environment should have a monitoring tool for staffing levels. There are many sources recommending audits on labour care and outcomes: Royal College of Midwives (RCM) birth centre standards, Safer Childbirth, and Standards for Maternity Care.

Keywords

Royal College of Midwiveslabour carematernity careSafer Childbirthservice planningStandards for Maternity Careclinical guidelinesintrapartum careaudit cyclecare pathways
Type
Chapter
Information
Models of Care in Maternity Services , pp. 91 - 99
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×