Ambulatory Childbirth Pathway Pilot Feasibility Study (NICE BIRTH)

NICE BIRTH - Ambulatory Childbirth Pathway Pilot Feasibility Study

In 2016, according to the national perinatal survey, the average length of stay in maternity hospitals in France after a vaginal delivery was 4.0 days, confirming the decrease in this length of stay compared with previous surveys, but placing France among the Western countries with the longest stay.

Several countries that have further reduced the average length of stay offer low-risk populations a return home in the first few hours after delivery.

As early as 2014, the Haute Autorité de Santé reminded us that "once low risk is defined, the length of stay in the maternity hospital is not discriminating for the safety of the mother and the newborn. The optimal length of stay would rather depend on the organization of the discharge from the maternity hospital, the medical follow-up and the subsequent support".

The studies against a very early discharge are the result of experiments that do not define low risk, and/or do not propose home support.

This pilot study aims to provide a framework for a care pathway allowing discharge from the maternity hospital from the 2nd hour and before the 24th hour following an uncomplicated delivery. Its main objective is to show that such a care pathway allows to respect the French postpartum recommendations, while answering a legitimate expectation of personalization of the care offered to women wishing to be monitored at home earlier after the delivery. It also studies the complications, tolerance, satisfaction and cost of such care.

This is a non-randomized cohort study. It studies 100 voluntary mother-newborn couples, after a delivery at the Nice University Hospital, meeting objective criteria of low risk. A daily follow-up is ensured by a liberal midwife during the first 3 days. The link between the patient, the private midwife and the maternity hospital is maintained permanently thanks to a free dedicated mobile application. This application, equipped with an alert system, is an additional guarantee of compliance with the recommendations for screening and mandatory procedures. It allows for a safer transfer of hospital care to ambulatory care, while providing personalized care tailored to the patient's expectations.

This pilot study would be the beginning of a larger study demonstrating the non-inferiority of such a care pathway compared to the most common management requiring a stay of several days in a maternity hospital.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

100

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

      • Nice, France
        • Hôpital Archet

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

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Maternal:
  • Voluntary
  • Legal age
  • Vaginal delivery
  • General Health Insurance Plan
  • Accompanying person present at discharge and every day during the first 2 days
  • Pain VAS < 5 with or without simple analgesics
  • Mother-child interaction judged satisfactory by the team
  • Signature of consent
  • Pediatric :
  • Singleton
  • > 38 weeks of amenorrhea
  • Eutrophic
  • Apgar > 7 at 5 minutes of life
  • Respiratory rate < 60/min; 90bpm < Heart rate < 170bpm; SaO2 >95
  • Axillary temperature between 36 and 37°C
  • Feeding established
  • Vitamin K1 given
  • Neonatal screenings organized

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Maternal:
  • Social isolation, psychiatric disorder with impact on infant care, moderate to severe (according to DSM5) substance use disorder
  • Poorly balanced chronic condition requiring hospitalization
  • Postpartum complications requiring hospitalization
  • Postpartum hemorrhage > 500mL
  • Body temperature > 38.0°C without paracetamol
  • Thromboembolic signs: pain, edema, positive Homans sign
  • Protected persons defined in the following articles of the public health code:

L. 1121-6: persons deprived of liberty by a judicial or administrative decision, persons hospitalized without consent and persons admitted to a health or social institution for purposes other than research; L. 1121-8: adults subject to a legal protection measure or unable to express their consent; L. 1122-1-2: persons in emergency situations unable to give prior consent.

  • Pediatric :
  • Jaundice
  • Risk factor for neonatal infection (maternal streptococcal B colonization during the current pregnancy, history of neonatal streptococcal B infection in a previous pregnancy, duration of rupture of membranes > 12 hours, maternal temperature > 38.0°C intrapartum or during the 2 hours following delivery).

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: Other
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Ambulatory nice birth
Discharge from the maternity ward from the 2nd hour and before the 24th hour following an uncomplicated delivery
discharge from the maternity ward from the 2nd hour and before the 24th hour following an uncomplicated delivery

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Emergency visits
Time Frame: one month
Percentage of emergency visits for neonatal or maternal reasons within one month of delivery
one month

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
post partum recommendations
Time Frame: one month
Number of deviations from postpartum recommendations
one month
Breastfeading rate
Time Frame: one month
Difference between the breastfeeding desire rate on the day of delivery and the breastfeeding rate at 1 month postpartum
one month
Maternal pain
Time Frame: Day 2
Maternal pain on the 2nd day of delivery measured with the VAS scale, ranging from 1 (no pain) to 10 (maximum imaginable pain)
Day 2
Satisfaction score
Time Frame: One month
Overall satisfaction score for care at 1 month postpartum ranging from 1 (not satisfied) to 10 (very satisfied)
One month
Cost of outpatient care
Time Frame: one month
Average cost (in euros) of outpatient care: cost of shortened hospitalization + cost of consultations with the private midwife + cost of managing alerts from the remote application
one month

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Pierre-Alexis GAUCI, MD-PHD, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nice

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

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)

December 19, 2021

Primary Completion (Actual)

March 20, 2025

Study Completion (Actual)

March 20, 2025

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

June 24, 2022

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 24, 2022

First Posted (Actual)

June 29, 2022

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

May 26, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 21, 2026

Last Verified

July 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 19-PP-10

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.

Subscribe