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Implementing the WHO Labour Care Guide to reduce the use of Caesarean section in four hospitals in India

The new World Health Organization (WHO) Labour Care Guide (LCG) is an innovative partograph that emphasises women-centred, evidence-based care during labour and childbirth. Together with clinicians working at four hospitals in India, we will develop and test a strategy to implement the LCG into routine care in labour wards of these hospitals.

We used a stepped-wedge randomised trial to introduce the LCG strategy sequentially in each of the four hospitals. We collected data on all women giving birth and their newborns during this period, and analyse whether the LCG strategy has any effects on the use of Caesarean section, women’s and newborn’s health outcomes, and women’s experiences during labour and childbirth.

While the trial was being conducted, we also collected qualitative and quantitative data from doctors, nurses and midwives working in these hospitals, to understand their perspectives and experiences of using the LCG in their day-to-day work. In addition, we collected economic data to understand how much the LCG strategy costs, and how much money it might save if it is effective.

2021-2022

The new World Health Organization (WHO) Labour Care Guide (LCG) is an innovative partograph that emphasises women-centred, evidence-based care during labour and childbirth. Together with clinicians working at four hospitals in India, we will develop and test a strategy to implement the LCG into routine care in labour wards of these hospitals.

Joshua.Vogel

Professor Joshua Vogel

Contact Professor Joshua Vogel for more information about this project. 

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Funding
Partners

  • Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Partners +
Collaborators

  • Women’s and Children’s Health Research Unit, KLE University’s Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Belgaum 590010 Karnataka India
  • Department of Mother & Child Health, Institute for Clinical Effectiveness and Health Policy (IECS), Buenos Aires, Argentina