The Let's Talk Early Labour (L-TEL) Trial

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    The Let’s Talk Early Labour (L-TEL) Trial: Can an educational website affect nulliparous women's experiences of early labour - a randomised control trial

  • IRAS ID

    235371

  • Contact name

    Rebecca Edwards

  • Contact email

    edwardsr@bournemouth.ac.uk

  • Sponsor organisation

    Bournemouth University

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    1 years, 14 months, 22 days

  • Research summary

    Early labour is the beginning part of a woman’s labour. There is substantial research demonstrating that women with low-risk pregnancies have better birth outcomes if they remain at home during this time. In spite of these advantages, many women do not feel confident to cope with early labour pain at home and seek admission to their place of birth; these women are at greater risk of unnecessary obstetric intervention and poorer birth outcomes. Existing literature indicates women are not having their needs met during early labour and research is required in an attempt to address this shortfall in maternity care.
    An educational website has been developed underpinned by Bandura’s self-efficacy theory (1977). The website provides evidence-based information about how to cope in early labour, alongside videos of women who have already had babies, talking about their positive experiences of being at home in early labour.
    This website will be the intervention in a single-centre, pragmatic randomised trial named The Let’s Talk Early Labour (L-TEL) Trial. Following recruitment and consent, 100 low-risk women, pregnant with their first baby, will be asked to complete a childbirth self-efficacy questionnaire (Lowe 1993) to establish baseline self-efficacy. Participants will then be randomised to either the intervention arm, or to the control arm (standard care routinely provided by the NHS Trust). Those in the intervention arm will receive access to the website and be able to use this freely throughout the rest of their pregnancy. 7-28 days postnatally, both trial arms will complete an Early Labour Experience Questionnaire (Janssen and Desmaris 2013). Data from this questionnaire will be used, on an intention to treat basis, to compare the two groups’ affective experiences of early labour. It is hoped this analysis will indicate whether an educational, early labour website can affect first time mothers' experiences of early labour.

  • REC name

    South Central - Hampshire A Research Ethics Committee

  • REC reference

    18/SC/0396

  • Date of REC Opinion

    23 Aug 2018

  • REC opinion

    Favourable Opinion