ÖHG demands: Implement one-to-one care during childbirth!
We demand reliable framework conditions for guideline-compliant care of the woman and the child during labour. As soon as a woman giving birth enters the active opening phase of labour, she should be cared for by a midwife who exclusively looks after this one birth.
This is also possible in the clinic, with the appropriate staffing plans. One-to-one care does not mean that a midwife has to attend a birth all the time. Changes of duty and handover to a colleague are compatible with one-to-one care.
One-to-one support means:
A midwife is there for a woman in labour from the active opening phase and in the active exit phase. At this point, the woman is already having regular, intense contractions. The labour can now proceed quickly, but can also take up to 12 hours.
The midwife helps the woman to breathe during labour, relieves the pain and helps the woman to find positions that ease the labour pain and guide the baby optimally into the birth canal. She constantly checks that the woman giving birth and the child are doing well and that the birth is proceeding without complications.
One-to-one care by the midwife during labour has been shown to be associated with fewer complications and interventions and leads to greater satisfaction among women.
Guideline recommends one-to-one care by midwives
The first S3 guideline in the German-speaking world on vaginal birth at term has been available since 2021 for the transfer of scientific findings into the daily practice of obstetrics. The medical associations of midwives and doctors jointly developed the guideline and published it as the result of a long consensus process. The guideline provides midwives and doctors with accumulated knowledge and good orientation for decisions and actions in obstetrics.
A very central recommendation of the guideline, namely one-to-one care by the midwife from the active opening phase of labour, is unfortunately not yet the standard in many clinics in Austria that the woman giving birth can rely on.This is not good for the woman if she is left alone in the labour room, and also not good for the midwives if they cannot care for the woman without interruption.
We midwives demand that the decision-makers in the Austrian healthcare system quickly implement the framework conditions for reliable one-to-one care during labour!
Source: S3 Leitlinie „Vaginal birth at term“ – short and long version on the AWMF-website: https://www.awmf.org/leitlinien/detail/ll/015-083.html