Conditions: Maternal Oxygen Use in Labor
Allocation: NON_RANDOMIZED | Intervention model: PARALLEL
Enrollment: 844
Healthy volunteers: yes

Brief summary:
The objective of this study is to determine if a strategy of indicated compared to liberal oxygen administration in labor decreases the rate of cesarean delivery. The hypothesis is that women who undergo a strategy of indicated compared to liberal oxygen administration in labor will have lower rate of cesarean delivery and fetal acidemia at birth.

Detailed description:
This is a single-site before and after study comparing the strategy of liberal versus indicated use of maternal oxygen in the first and second stages of labor in the setting of a category 2 fetal heart rate tracing (FHR) tracing, as defined by American Congress of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) and National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) guidelines. All patients who are at term and are undergoing labor at Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston, Texas during the time frame of the study will be included in the study. The study will be conducted over 18 weeks. It will involve two 8 week time periods during which all patients will under either a strategy of liberal administration of oxygen use (current practice) in the "before" portion of the study and indicated administration of oxygen in the "after" portion of the study (new practice). There will be a transition period where training, education, and audit + feedback will be done to prepare for a strategy of indicated administration of oxygen.

Arms:
arm 1: Administration of maternal oxygen, 100% FiO2 at 10L/min via nonrebreather face mask with any category 2 tracing as defined by the American Congress of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) at the discretion of the primary nurse or physician arm 2: Administration of maternal oxygen, 100% fraction of inspired oxygen (FiO2) at 10 liters/min via nonrebreather face mask only in the setting of a category 2 tracing with recurrent late fetal heart rate decelerations, prolonged fetal deceleration, fetal tachycardia, or minimal to absent fetal heart rate variability lasting 30 minutes or greater. Maternal oxygen is discontinued once these conditions have resolved and may be readministered if they recur.

Interventions: intervention 1: Liberal use of maternal oxygen intervention 2: Indicated use of maternal oxygen
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: Administration of maternal oxygen, 100% FiO2 at 10L/min via nonrebreather face mask with any category 2 tracing as defined by ACOG10 at the discretion of the primary nurse or physician intervention 2: Administration of maternal oxygen, 100% FiO2 at 10L/min via nonrebreather face mask only in the setting of a category 2 tracing with recurrent late fetal heart rate decelerations, prolonged fetal deceleration, fetal tachycardia, or minimal to absent fetal heart rate variability lasting 30 minutes or greater. Maternal oxygen is discontinued once these conditions have resolved and may be readministered if they recur.

Protocol document: