Vanora Hundley is Professor of Midwifery at Bournemouth University. She is an internationally recognised midwifery researcher, having written over 70 peer-reviewed research articles on pregnancy, maternity care and midwifery. She has led a range of studies in the reproductive health field both in the UK and internationally. She conducted one of the first randomised controlled trials of midwife-led care, which forms part of the Cochrane review of birth settings. More recent work has examined the role of labour practices and their impact on maternal and neonatal outcomes, both in low income and high income countries. Passionate about research utilisation, Vanora is a Faculty Fellow at the Cochrane Collaboration College for Policy examining how best to disseminate Cochrane reviews. She believes that researchers must work closely with colleagues in both practice and education to ensure that research is relevant and that it is utilised.
Traditionally women have laboured and given birth in their own homes, but over the course of the twentieth century hospital birth increased in frequency, eventually becoming the norm in many high income countries. With the move away from birth in the home, deciding when to come into hospital became an important and challenging issue for women. Midwives frequently encourage women to labour at home for as long as possible, but women often seek hospital admission because they are anxious and would like more support. In this presentation I examine the evidence surrounding early labour in hospital and ask whether we should be telling women to stay at home.
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