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Strategic Research for improving quality in healthcare

Improving the survival rate on the day of birth

Our work focuses on care during labor and birth with a particular emphasis on WHO Labour Care Guide, supporting the newborn immediately after birth and making every birth and resuscitation a learning event.

Supporting implementation of Labour Care Guide in Norway

Short name:

NORWELCG

Objectives and aim:

Sykehuset Østfold is leading the NORWELCG study and needed a digital tool to visualize a slow birth progress as defined by the WHO Labour Care Guide.

LabourView is an open web page with graphics to illustrate progress of labour in labour and time of slow progress.

Links to partner page:

https://www.oslomet.no/en/research/research-projects/norwegian-who-labour-care-guide-trial

Supporting transition at birth with new monitoring technology

Short name:

Birth Transition Sensor

Objectives and aim:

To provide information about physiological changes in heart and lung function immediately after birth when the body adapts from intra to extra uterine life. The information will support decisions and help track the effectiveness of interventions.

Principal Investigator:

Anne Lee Solevåg, Rikshospitalet

PhD student:

Stine Marie Brekke, Rikshospitalet

Funding:

Helse Øst

Clinical trials:

SIKT

Laerdal concepts and regulatory:

The Birth Transition Concept will add information value when using NeoBeat immediately after birth, also when the baby is placed on the mother’s belly with intact cord. Sensor technology will measure changes in lung volume due to breathing and ventilation, heart rate and ECG, oxygenation and changes in blood volume to the skin. Sensor information will be processed and presented on a monitor.

Learn from every birth and resuscitation

Short name:

Safer Births Scandinavia

Objectives and Aim:

The Safer Births Scandinavia network will conduct research on newborn resuscitation by systematically collecting data in a population-based observational study. The study will examine factors such as:

  • Resuscitation location (midwife-led unit vs. separate room).
  • Timing relative to umbilical cord clamping.
  • How birth volume, place, or specialist staffing affect outcomes.

Key outcomes include:

  • Types of treatment.
  • Newborn physiological response (heart rate >100 bpm, time to self-respiration).
  • Short-term results (neonatal transfer, hypoxic encephalopathy, death before discharge).