Antenatal education for self-diagnosis of the onset of active labour at term

A specific program designed to teach women to recognise active labour may be beneficial through potentially decreasing the incidence of early admission to hospital, increasing women's confidence and decreasing their anxiety.

The objective of this review was to assess the effects of teaching pregnant women specific criteria for self-diagnosis of active labour onset in term pregnancy.

We searched the Cochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth Group trials register and the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register.

Randomised trials comparing a structured antenatal education intervention for the identification of symptoms for self-diagnosis of active labour with usual care.

Trial quality was assessed.

One study involving 245 women was included. Method of randomisation was unclear and 15% of the sample was lost to follow-up in this trial. A specific antenatal education program was associated with a reduction in the mean number of visits to the labour suite before the onset of labour (weighted mean difference -0. 29, 95% confidence interval -0.47 to -0.11). It is unclear whether this resulted in fewer women being sent home because they were not in labour.

There is not enough evidence to evaluate the use of a specific set of criteria for self-diagnosis of active labour.