Latent labor hospital admission: outcomes and prevention

Because of a preponderance of evidence that medically low-risk women admitted to the hospital during the latent phase of labor are at risk for increased interventions and procedures, such as cesarean delivery, without a corresponding improvement in maternal or neonatal outcomes, there is a need to quantify the consequences of latent labor hospital admission, explore interventions successful in decreasing latent labor admission, and to consider which theoretical framework may best support understanding how interventions might lead to decreased latent labor admission. Therefore, the overall purpose of this doctoral work was to better define the ramifications of latent labor hospital admission and, subsequently, to build knowledge regarding one intervention with the potential to decrease latent labor hospital admission.