Continuous Support for Women During Childbirth: 2017 Cochrane Review Update Key Takeaways

This contribution reproduces a fact sheet about the current Cochrane systematic review, Continuous Support for Women During Childbirth, summarizing 27 randomized controlled trials of nearly 16,000 women. Having continuous labor support versus none was associated with no harms and impressive benefits, especially when provided by someone in a doula role. Overall, women with continuous support were more likely to have spontaneous vaginal births and shorter labors and less likely to have negative birth experiences, labor pain medication, epidural/spinal analgesia, instrumental vaginal births, cesarean births and low 5-minute Apgar scores. Subgroup analysis found most benefits and greatest effects sizes when continuous support was provided by someone in a doula role versus a member of the hospital staff or the woman's social network.