Background
A partograph is a graphical record used to monitor the progress of labour. It acts as an early warning system, which helps midwives notice abnormalities that could affect the mother or baby’s health and gives them time to take action to treat the problems. National partographs have been introduced in many countries, including Ukraine, and are initially supported by guidelines and training workshops. However, there is often a lack of follow-up and supervision to ensure that the partograph is used in a correct way.

About the project
This project was created to increase correct partograph use in the daily practices at Kyiv City Perinatal Center. The project team assessed the quality of labour monitoring in routine maternity care after the partograph was introduced at the hospital. Discussions were held with the midwives, obstetricians and gynaecologists to understand their challenges and encourage them to use the partograph according to the guidelines. The project team also compared the implementation of two different partographs, both developed by the World Health Organization (WHO), to determine which one should be used in the future.

Results
By the end of the project, the correct use of partograph increased from 3% to 45%. The rates of caesarian sections decreased from 24,8% to 20,8% and the emergency caesarean sections went from 49% to 37,4%. 90 obstetricians/gynaecologists and 40 midwives were involved in the project. After the evaluation of the WHO partographs, the project team concluded that one of them was more user friendly, more likely to be completed and associated with better labor outcomes.

Year: 2008