OBJECTIVE: To study the impact of an educational intervention of midwives' use of the Angolan model of the World Health Organization's (WHO) partograph. SETTING: A peripheral delivery unit with approximately 1500 deliveries per year, run by eleven midwives in Luanda, Angola. DESIGN: The quasi-experimental, One-Group Pre-test-Post-test design was used in this study. Fifty partographs plotted with an initial dilatation < 8 cm were randomly selected from the first period of six month to form sample I, and another fifty from the second six-months period to form sample II. INTERVENTION: In-service education (theory and practice) performed by a team of midwives and an obstetrician. MEASUREMENTS AND FINDINGS: When comparing sample II with sample I, statistically significant improvements were found in seven of 10 measured variables. This indicates a positive effect of the educational intervention on a proper use of the partograph. Due to the small sample size, however, this study cannot evaluate action taken in relation to prolonged labour. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: The in-service educational programme may be of use when introducing the WHO partograph in similar settings, and the findings of this study may indicate which parts of the programme need more emphasis. CONCLUSIONS: The midwives improved in general their documentation of the partograph. However, they tended to exceed established criteria for responsibilities at the peripheral delivery unit, a fact supported by an increased number of missed transfers. The study did not, however, answer the question why the midwives acted as they did in the referred cases.
OBJECTIVE: To study the impact of an educational intervention of midwives' use of the Angolan model of the World Health Organization's (WHO) partograph. SETTING: A peripheral delivery unit with approximately 1500 deliveries per year, run by eleven midwives in Luanda, Angola. DESIGN: The quasi-experimental, One-Group Pre-test-Post-test design was used in this study. Fifty partographs plotted with an initial dilatation < 8 cm were randomly selected from the first period of six month to form sample I, and another fifty from the second six-months period to form sample II. INTERVENTION: In-service education (theory and practice) performed by a team of midwives and an obstetrician. MEASUREMENTS AND FINDINGS: When comparing sample II with sample I, statistically significant improvements were found in seven of 10 measured variables. This indicates a positive effect of the educational intervention on a proper use of the partograph. Due to the small sample size, however, this study cannot evaluate action taken in relation to prolonged labour. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: The in-service educational programme may be of use when introducing the WHO partograph in similar settings, and the findings of this study may indicate which parts of the programme need more emphasis. CONCLUSIONS: The midwives improved in general their documentation of the partograph. However, they tended to exceed established criteria for responsibilities at the peripheral delivery unit, a fact supported by an increased number of missed transfers. The study did not, however, answer the question why the midwives acted as they did in the referred cases.