Non-verbal nurse-parturient communication in labor in Portuguese-speaking countries.
Gilmara de Lucena Beserra, Paula Marciana Pinheiro de Oliveira, Lorita Marlena Freitag Pagliuca and 3 others
PMID 31596422WHAT IT FOUND
Many nurse-parturient interactions during active labour had no non-verbal communication, especially in Brazil.
When nurses and women did interact, they were usually close and face-to-face; Brazilian nurses often had no touch.
Key findings
01Across 709 observed nurse-parturient interactions, absence of non-verbal communication was common, especially in Brazil.
02When nurses and parturients interacted, intimate distance and face-to-face positioning were predominant.
03Brazilian nurses more often had no contact, while Cape Verdean nurses used touch; parturients in both countries were mostly lying down.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study was done in two settings, a normal birth centre in Brazil and a maternity hospital in Cape Verde, so it may not represent other labour settings. The analysed units were 709 interactions, not a stated number of women or nurses, so a woman or nurse could contribute many or few observations. In Cape Verde, women who had difficulty with Portuguese were excluded, and Creole-only communication caused participation difficulties. The study recorded non-verbal behaviour but did not measure anxiety, birth experience, intervention rates or newborn outcomes. The paper states the researcher did not influence interactions, but observer presence was not tested.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as proof that nurse touch or face-to-face communication improves labour outcomes. It recorded non-verbal behaviours during active labour and found differences between two settings, but it did not test an intervention or measure patient outcomes.