Labor Support for Intended Vaginal Birth

he purpose of this Guideline is to provide evidence-based clinical practice recommendations to support individualized labor based on the best available evidence. The goal is to promote safe vaginal birth with limited medical interventions. Labor support strategies should be provided from admission through birth and should be used to complement the labor process for people who choose to use pharmacologic agents for pain management. This Guideline provides evidence-based approaches to accomplish the following:

• Empower people in labor to achieve their wishes using a shared decision-making model
• Provide labor support strategies to incorporate into standardized care practices
• Minimize technological interventions during labor
• Decrease cesarean birth