gms | German Medical Science

Background: Dealing with the discomfort of the latent phase is often difficult for first-time mothers. They feel insecure and recurrently contact the hospital early, as staying at home during this time can be associated with fears and worries. Care during early labour can be unsatisfactory for the parturients and challenging for the health professionals. Therefore, in-depth knowledge of the symptoms of the onset of labour and the care needs during early labour is needed.

Aim: The aim of this study is therefore to investigate which physical and emotional symptoms pregnant women experience at the onset of labour and how these symptoms are associated with early labour care needs.

Methods: Since May 2021, a scoping review has been conducted in the PubMed, CINAHL Complete, Midirs, PsycInfo and Web of Science databases. A search protocol was registered in advance of the literature search in the Open Science Framework. The sensitive search strategy included the search components ‘pregnant women/parturients’, ‘physical and/or emotional symptoms’, ‘care/support needs’ and ‘onset of labour’ with their synonyms. The search strings were checked and improved according to the PRESS checklist. English, German, French and Italian studies were included. After removing duplicates, the titles and abstracts of 2,584 hits were screened by two researchers independently and conflicts were resolved by consensus. A total of 269 studies were included in the full-text screening and are currently also screened independently by two researchers. Conflicts are resolved by consensus. Further studies may be added due to the hand search that has not yet taken place. Data extraction will be carried out using a data extraction table created for this purpose and controlled by a second person. The scoping review is being conducted using the review management tool Covidence.

Results: An estimated 70–120 studies with very different study designs will be included in this review. Contractions are a very common symptom of onset of labour. They are described with different additional criteria such as regularity and length and are sometimes also quantified with average values for pain sensation during early labour. Additionally, a variety of other physical and emotional symptoms of the onset of labour are described. Some of these are related to the further progress of birth and directly or indirectly to the need for care. Detailed results of the review will be available by the end of 2021.

Relevancy: The findings of this review are of great importance for health professionals as they promote a deeper understanding of early labour. This is important to enable individualised care for women in the latent phase of labour which may not only improve obstetric outcomes but also birth satisfaction.

Conclusion: It is becoming apparent that this scoping review will lead to deeper knowledge about a variety of physical and psychological symptoms of the onset of labour. These symptoms are associated with different levels of care needs. The results of this study form therefore a base for improving early labour care.

Ethics and conflicts of interest: A vote on ethics was not necessary. The research was supported by external funding. There are no conflicts of interest.