Determining the effects of maternal upright birth position on maternal and foetal outcome among pregnant women delivering in government hospitals in Dar es Salaam: A randomized controlled trial study protocol

A prolonged active stage of labour leads to complications and adverse effects for both mother and newborn, and among of it causes is a horizontal birth position, which accounts for 91.4% to 99.7% of all vaginal births in Tanzania. The study purpose is to determine the effect of the upright birth position on reducing the duration of the second stage of labour, perineal tear, maternal birth satisfaction, and apgar score among women delivering in government hospitals in Dar es Salaam-Tanzania. METHODS: This will be a randomized controlled trial that will include 116 participants in experimental and 116 participants in the control group. A simple random sampling will be used to select 4 out 6 hospitals with adjustable beds in Dar es Salaam. In each hospital, participants will be randomly allocated to an either experimental group or control group whereby, the experimental group will be directed and helped to assume an upright birth position during the second stage of labour while the control group will be allowed to assume the horizontal position. Data will be analysed using SPSS version 28. An independent t test and one-way MANOVA will be used to compare the effects of intervention between the experimental and control, and a P value of < .05 will be regarded as a statistically significant difference. DISCUSSION: The study is important in improving the birth outcome while putting a high consideration to the mothers’ birth satisfaction.