The Ball Assisted Latent Labour (BALL) trial

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Using a birth ball in the latent phase of labour to reduce pain perception: a randomised controlled trial.

• IRAS ID

  194437

• Contact name

  Julie Northam

• Contact email

  jnortham@bournemouth.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  Bournemouth University

• Duration of Study in the UK

  0 years, 8 months, 0 days

• Research summary

  Hospital admission in the latent phase of labour (or ‘early labour’) is associated with higher rates of intervention, such as using a hormone drip to augment labour,breaking waters, continuous electronic fetal monitoring and caesarean section. These all contribute to increased problems for mothers and babies during and after birth. Women sent home from hospital in early labour to ‘await events’ feel anxious and cite pain as their main reason for seeking hospital admission in early labour.
  Using a birth ball to remain mobile in full labour reduces women's pain perception and their anxiety. However, no research has examined the effect of using birth balls at home in early labour to see if women find their contractions less painful and have less complicated labours. Promoting birth ball use at home in the latent phase of labour may enhance women’s confidence and reduce their pain perception. This may help them to postpone going into hospital until their labour is established.
  This study involves a randomised, controlled, single centre trial with two parallel groups of low risk pregnant women. Following recruitment and consent at 28 weeks’ gestation 332 women will be randomly allocated to two groups. The Intervention Arm will be asked to access an on-line animated 90 second infomercial and offered the loan of a birth ball to use early labour at home. Control Arm participants will receive normal care provided by the NHS Trust. Participants will be asked to record their pain on a scale from 0-10 when they go into hospital in labour. Both Arms will be followed up six weeks’ postnatally with an online questionnaire to evaluate how many women used the ball at home in early labour and whether they found it helpful.

• REC name

  South Central - Hampshire B Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  17/SC/0534

• Date of REC Opinion

  11 Dec 2017

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion