The World Health Organization (WHO) wants to “define global standards of care for healthy pregnant women and limit unnecessary medical interventions”, as it states in a statement published February 15. These recommendations are in line with those that the High Authority for Health (HAS) presented last January.
“It is estimated that 140 million births occur each year worldwide. Most of them are without complications for women and their children. However, over the past 20 years, practitioners have increasingly sought medical help. interventions previously intended to avoid risks or treat complications, such as oxytocin infusion to speed up labor or cesarean sections, ”the WHO statement read.
Today, professionals consider that the dilation of the cervix should be 1cm per hour during the first phase of labor and if the pace is slower, there is medical intervention. According to the WHO, care must be individualized, because each childbirth is different.
56 recommendations in total
“The increasing medicalization of normal childbirth processes decreases women’s own ability to give birth and negatively influences their childbirth experience,” said Dr Princess Nothemba Simelela, WHO Assistant Director-General, in charge of the Family Group, women, children and adolescents. “If labor is progressing normally and the woman and child are doing well, they don’t need any additional intervention to speed up labor,” she adds.
In total, WHO presents 56 recommendations. Among them, the right for women to benefit from the support of the person of their choice, respectful and personalized care, the maintenance of privacy and confidentiality, good communication with providers as well as a participation in making all decisions concerning, for example, pain management, the positions to be adopted during labor and delivery and the natural need to push.
Through these new guidelines, WHO is demonstrating the desire to provide the best possible care and by putting women at the heart of decisions in order to promote a positive experience of childbirth.
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