Development and validation of a tool for advising primiparous women during early labour (GebStart-Study)
At a glance
- Project leader : Dr. Susanne Grylka
- Project team : Antonia Nathalie Müller
- Project status : ongoing
- Funding partner : SNSF
- Project partner : Universitätsspital Zürich, Universitätsspital Basel, Kantonsspital Baden AG, Luzerner Kantonsspital, Kantonsspital Winterthur KSW, Stadt Zürich / Stadtspital Triemli
- Contact person : Susanne Grylka
Description
Background
Pregnant women experience early labour as the first phase of labour
with different physical and emotional symptoms. Early admission to
hospital has been found to be associated with increased
intervention and caesarean section rates. However, primiparous
women often contact the hospital before labour progresses because
they might have difficulties coping with labour pain at home.
Previous studies investigating early labour care have not resulted
in increased spontaneous birth rates and have not provided evidence
regarding the appropriate care during early labour. An
evidence-based instrument assessing the physical and emotional
state within the early labour process and the wellbeing of woman
and thereby, their need for support, is required to inform the
decision “Admitted versus not admitted to hospital”. The study aims
therefore to develop and validate a tool for the structured advice
for primiparous women during early labour.
Methodological approach
The study will last three years and contains the following
steps:
- Generation of an item pool with 70-100 items based on a literature research (symptoms of onset of labour, anxiety, self-efficacy) and focus group discussions with women (experiences) as well as determination of formats of measurements.
- Assessment of content and face validity by an expert panel and item reduction to 30-40 items.
- Multicentre data collection in six sites in the Zurich region as well as Central and Northwest Switzerland, with the application of the preliminary instrument and the validation items with a target sample size of approximately n=400 women, and
- Exploratory factor analysis for item reduction, designing the final version of the instrument with 15-20 items and assessing quality criteria of the instrument, satisfaction with the use of the instrument and perinatal outcomes.
Relevance of the project
The development and validation of a tool to assess the physical and
emotional state and wellbeing and thereby, the need of support will
provide an instrument to advise primiparous women during early
labour. It can be applied by midwives and doctors for the initial
telephone or face to face contact. The use of the instrument is of
great interest because it has the potential to shorten hospital
stays, increase spontaneous birth rates and decrease intervention
rates and thereby, lower costs. Additionally, this study will make
an important contribution to the scientific discussion for
optimising early labour care and provide a basis for further
research.
Publications
-
Grylka, Susanne; Gross, Mechthild M.; Müller, Antonia N.; Pehlke-Milde, Jessica,
2022.
BMJ Open.
12(e062869).
Available from: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-062869
-
Müller, Antonia Nathalie; Grylka, Susanne,
2022.
Selbstmanagement und Betreuungsbedarf von Erstgebärenden während der Latenzphase [poster].
In:
Schweizerischer Hebammenkongress, Thun, 18.-19. Mai 2022.
ZHAW Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften.
Available from: https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-25070
-
Grylka, Susanne; Müller, Antonia Nathalie,
2021.
Physical and emotional symptoms of onset of labour.
In:
1st Swiss Perinatal Research Special Interest Group Symposium : "Collaborate for high quality perinatal care", Zürich, 23 November 2021.