The Swedish Birth Seat Trial

The Swedish Birth Seat Trial

The purpose of this study is to determine whether birth on a birthing seat will effect numbers of instrumentally assisted vaginal births, vaginal traumas, blood loss,use of artificial oxytocin for labour augmentation and fetal outcomes.

Inclusion Criteria:

• nulliparous women who understood the Swedish language sufficiently well to receive information and give informed consent
• a normal pregnancy,singleton fetus in cephalic presentation
• spontaneous onset of labor occurring between gestational weeks 37 + 0 and 41 + 6
• Body Mass Index less (BMI) than thirty
• gestational diabetes not requiring medical treatment
• women who were planning a vaginal birth after a caesarean section (VBAC)
• women induced because of spontaneous rupture of membranes with no spontaneous contractions for longer than twenty-four hours

Exclusion Criteria:

• multiparous women
• birth before gestational week 37
• breech presentation
• maternal BMI more than 30
• multiple pregnancy
• infectious disease
• pre-eclampsia or other conditions requiring medical care