The aesthetic nature of the birthing room environment may alter the need for obstetrical interventions: an observational retrospective cohort study

Tine Wrønding, Aikaterini Argyraki, Jesper Friis Petersen, Märta Fink Topsøe, Paul Michael Petersen, Ellen C L Løkkegaard

7 Citations (Scopus)
13 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The concept of sensory delivery rooms was introduced in 2013. These rooms offer programmable calming lights, restful blurred pictures displayed on a wall-sized big screen, and sound effects. The primary aim of this observational study was to analyse the risk of obstetrical interventions among women giving birth for the first-time in a sensory delivery room vs. a standard delivery room. We included nulliparous, term pregnant women having a single baby with a cephalic presentation who were in spontaneous labour and gave birth between March 1st 2014 and July 1st 2015 in North Zealand Hospital, Hillerød. A total of 789 women were included in the study, 313 gave birth in a sensory room and 476 in a standard delivery room. The risk of a caesarean delivery was significantly decreased when giving birth in a sensory room compared with a standard delivery room (OR, multiple adjusted: 0.44; 95% CI 0.22-0.87); furthermore, the use of oxytocin infusion was also reduced (OR, multiple adjusted: 0.71; 95% CI 0.50-1.03). This observational cohort study suggests that giving birth in a sensory delivery room could lower the risk of caesarean delivery, potentially reducing the number of such deliveries by one for every 23 patients.

Original languageEnglish
Article number303
JournalScientific Reports
Volume9
Number of pages7
ISSN2045-2322
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2019

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