An Evaluation of the Team Birth Project

April 26, 2025 updated by: Neel Shah, Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH)

A Program Evaluation to Measure the Feasibility of the Team Birth Project

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the feasibility of a pilot project to improve communication and teamwork and to increase vaginal delivery rates at hospital in the United States

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the feasibility of a pilot project to improve communication and teamwork and to increase vaginal delivery rates at hospital in the United States. TeamBirth is a rigorously designed care process to improve care and SDM across the full care team, which includes the patient, their support person(s), nurse and physician or midwife, by ensuring reliability for best practices in communication and teamwork during labor and delivery. TeamBirth aims to operationalize best practices in communication and clinical care from the major professional organizations in obstetrics, including the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists (ACOG), Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM), American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM), and Association of Women's Health, Obstetric, and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN), to ensure these practices are occurring consistently throughout labor. Key TeamBirth practices include:

  1. Promoting the roles of the laboring patient, nurse, and delivering provider as members of the care team with equally valuable input for SDM,
  2. Eliciting the patient's preferences, symptoms, and subjective experiences and integrating them with clinical data to inform patient care plans,
  3. Distinguishing statuses and care plans for the mother, fetus, and labor progress, and
  4. Setting shared expectations for the next planned evaluation.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

5217

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Massachusetts
      • Weymouth, Massachusetts, United States, 02190
        • South Shore Hospital
    • Oklahoma
      • Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States, 74136
        • Saint Francis Hospital
    • Washington
      • Bellevue, Washington, United States, 98004
        • Overlake Medical Center
      • Kirkland, Washington, United States, 98034
        • EvergreenHealth Medical Center

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Clinician Participant Inclusion Criteria:

  • All clinicians who have practice privileges at a study site

Clinician Participant Exclusion Criteria:

  • None

Implementation Team Participant Inclusion Criteria:

  • Champions, super-users and others who have been involved in the implementation of "Team Birth Project" at a study site

Implementation Team Participant Exclusion Criteria:

  • None

Patient Participant Inclusion Criteria:

  • 18 years or older
  • Live birth. Includes: spontaneous or induction of labor; Vaginally, with an instruments (forceps / vacuum), or unscheduled cesarean delivery
  • Patient at a study site piloting "Team Birth Project"

Patient Participant Exclusion Criteria:

  • Under 18 years old
  • Scheduled cesarean delivery
  • Experienced intrapartum, stillbirth, or neonatal death

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Other: Implemented Health Facility
Health facility that has piloted the "Team Birth Project"
Behavioral: Exposed study site
The study sites will pilot the Team Birth Project designed to improve team communication (between providers, as well as providers and patients). The project includes three key implementation steps that involve: preparing local sites for the implementation of the project; training and coaching on the use of the tools; and sustainment through peer coaching and data feedback. A mixed methods approach will be used to assess acceptability and feasibility, including: (1) clinician surveys and interviews, (2) implementation team focus groups, and (3) patient surveys.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Percent of Clinicians Recommending TeamBirth Project
Time Frame: The window begins on the 180th day to the 270th day from the start date at each site (180 days to 270 days). If clinicians complete more than one survey in the window, we will use the first one.
At the project midline, percent of clinicians (physicians, midwives, and nurses) who would definitely or probably recommend the Team Birth project tools for use in other labor and delivery units.
The window begins on the 180th day to the 270th day from the start date at each site (180 days to 270 days). If clinicians complete more than one survey in the window, we will use the first one.
Percent of Patients With the Role They Wanted in Decision-Making
Time Frame: The window begins on the 180th day to the 270th day from the start date at each site (180 days to 270 days). Patients were only offered the survey once within the window.
At the project midline, percent of patients who definitely or somewhat had the role they wanted in making decisions about their labor, among patients who wanted to make collaborative decisions with clinicians.
The window begins on the 180th day to the 270th day from the start date at each site (180 days to 270 days). Patients were only offered the survey once within the window.

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH)

Collaborators

Brigham and Women's Hospital

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Amber Weiseth, DNP, RN, Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH)

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

May 29, 2018

Primary Completion (Actual)

September 30, 2019

Study Completion (Actual)

December 31, 2019

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

April 16, 2018

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 7, 2018

First Posted (Actual)

May 18, 2018

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

May 14, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 26, 2025

Last Verified

April 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • IRB18-0550

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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