Sammanfattning
Background. The organisation of prehospital maternity care in Norway appears to be unclear and not properly formalised. We wished to examine the extent, organisation and quality of this service.
Material and method. We obtained information from the Norwegian Medical Birth Registry on all unplanned out-of-hospital births in 2008. A questionnaire was sent to all maternity institutions, municipalities and emergency medical dispatch centres (EMDCs) with questions regarding the practical and formal organisation of the service using figures from 2008.
Results. There were 429 unplanned out-of-hospital births (430 babies) with a gestation of > 22 full weeks in 2008. Of these, 194 were born unplanned at home, 189 during transportation, 43 elsewhere (outside an institution, unspecified) and four unknown. Five out of 53 maternity institutions (9?%) confirmed that they had a formal agreement for accompaniment. 247 municipalities (79?%) reported that they had no such formalised service, and 33 of these are located at least 90 minutes away from the nearest maternity institution. Half of the EMDCs were uncertain whether there were formal agreements for the attendance of a midwife at the maternity institution in the case of prehospital births.
Interpretation. In 2008, 79?% of Norwegian municipalities lacked a formalised accompaniment service. More uniform and predictable prehospital maternity care is needed.