BU Research Blog

In high-income countries where most women give birth in hospital, admission in early labour is associated with higher rates of obstetric intervention and emergency caesarean section with the potential for increased complications for mothers and babies. Although the decision is placed on the woman to decide when to go to hospital in labour, many families are sent home to ‘await events’ and return later. Families report that pain and anxiety are their principal motives for attending hospital in early labour, which is intensified by unhelpful, generic advice of: ‘take 2 paracetamol, have a warm bath, stay hydrated and mobilise’.
BU’s Centre for Midwifery and Women’s Health (CMWH) has joined forces with the BU National Centre for Computer Animation and University Hospitals Dorset (UHD) NHS Foundation Trust to develop a mobile phone app prototype for women and their birth partners to use at home in early labour.  The app aims to provide education and evidence-based activities for early labour in order to enhance their confidence, de-medicalise their pain and support their decision-making.

The app content combines the findings from three CMWH doctoral projects: the Let’s Talk Early Labour web resource Edwards 2022, Brythm to promote Slow Deep Breathing Felton 2021 and Having A Ball in Early Labour Mylod 2020 as an animated educational video to promote using a birth ball at home. The prototype is underpinned by CMWH-led research on pain catastrophising in childbirth Clark et al. 2022  and the views of the UHD midwives and families.
Dr. Dominique Mylod, as an Early Career Researcher, has successfully bid for 2 Digital Science and 1 Midwifery NIHR Undergraduate Internships. The Digital Science interns will develop the app content and user interfacing over 8 weeks. The Midwifery intern will liaise with midwives, women and birthing partners to feedback to the development team about content and useability. The successful interns will be announced following confirmation of their posts. Dominique will be mentored in this NIHR award by Professors Xiaosong Yang and Vanora Hundley. She is supported by an interdisciplinary team:
• Carol Clark, Professor of Physiotherapy BU
• Rebecca Edwards, RM, Consultant Midwife Frimley Park Hospital.
• Malika Felton, Senior Lecturer in Health & Exercise Physiology BU
• Vanora Hundley, Professor of Midwifery, BU
• Dominique Mylod, Lecturer in Midwifery BU
• Tracey Thompson RM, Digital Midwife UHD
• Xiaosong Yang, Professor & Deputy Head of Animation BU