The WHO Labour Care Guide
The WHO Labour Care Guide is a new tool, which puts the WHO recommendations on intrapartum care into practice. It aims to improve every woman’s experience of childbirth, and to help ensure the health and well-being of women and their babies. It helps skilled health personnel to provide woman-centred, safe and effective care and to optimize the outcome and experience of childbirth for every woman and baby.
The Guide and Manual recognize that every birth is unique – from a woman’s personal experience of care, to the speed at which her labour progresses. It also includes the woman in decision-making about her own labour, as part of the Labour Care Guide’s emphasis on the importance of a woman and her baby’s experiences of childbirth.
The Labour Care Guide has been evaluated in a multi-country research study. It was found to be feasible and acceptable for use across different clinical settings.