Summary

Pregnant women can experience the distance between their homes and delivery institutions as unsafe for themselves and the baby. Since 2010 the regional health trusts in Norway have had responsibility for accompaniment of women in labour who live 90 minutes or more from the institution where they will deliver. Accompaniment services offer 24-hour access to a midwife or doctor who can assess whether a woman is in active labour or for other reasons requires accompaniment to the delivery institution. The purpose of this systematic review is to answer the following questions:  

1. What is the meaning of distance to delivery institution for unwanted events, risk of complications and illness for the woman and the foetus/baby?  

1. What is the effect/meaning of accompaniment compared with no accompaniment on unwanted events, risk of complications and illness for the woman and the foetus/baby who live more than 90 minutes from the delivery institution?  

If we find little or no research which answers these two questions, we will seek to answer the following questions:  

1. How do pregnant women and their partners feel about living far from their delivery institution with concern to safety and security? What are their experiences related to these concerns?  

1. What are the experiences of pregnant women who live far from their delivery institution with accompaniment services?  

To identify relevant studies, a librarian will search in relevant international databases for studies published between 2010 and 2020 that look at the meaning of distance to delivery institution for pregnant women and babies. Two researchers will independently screen titles and abstracts and thereafter full text articles against specific inclusion criteria. We will then extract and analyse relevant data from the included studies, assess their methodological quality and our confidence in our findings with specific checklists and tools. The combined results will be presented and published in a report.

See the full project description at Cristin for more information about results, researchers, contact information etc.

Project participants

Project leader

Heather Melanie R Ames, Norwegian Institute of Public Health

Project participants

Hilde Marie Engjom, Bergen Hospital Trust - Haukeland University Hospital
Ellen Blix, OsloMet - Oslo Metropolitan University, Oslomet - Oslo Metropolitan University
Liv Merete Brynildsen Reinar, Norwegian Institute of Public Health
Signe Louise Forsetlund, Norwegian Institute of Public Health
Lillebeth Larun, Norwegian Institute of Public Health
Gyri Hval, Norwegian Institute of Public Health