Intrapartum care quality indicators: a literature review

Quality of care is increasingly recognized as a critical aspect of the maternal and newborn health, mainly with respect to care around labor and delivery and in the immediate postnatal period. The aim of this review was to identify the recommended intrapartum care indicators in order to measure the quality of midwifery care.

A structured literature search was conducted in August 2017 incorporating English and Italian language studies from 1993 and onwards to identify published articles on quality standards of intrapartum care. Research was performed into the area of enquiry in electronic database (Medline, Cochrane Library, CINAHL, Trip) and in relevant midwifery websites.

We identified 369 quality indicators to measure the intrapartum care. Following a systematic process that allows to classify all indicators in domains and categories, we analyzed 268 outcome and process indicators specifically designated to monitor the intrapartum care in a low risk population. Through the identification of further exclusion criteria and semantic analogies we obtained 80 final quality indicators (39 outcome indicators and 41 process indicators).

We identified 80 indicators that should be used to measure the quality of low risk intrapartum care. Although the majority of indicators we could monitor through hospital databases and the Italian Birth Register-CeDAP are outcome indicators, it is important to give attention also to process indicators that measure the activities performed and whether or not they are evidence-based. For a low risk population they could measure adherence with guidelines that promote and support the normality of the process.