Manual to Digital Transition of Partogram in Labour - Existing Gaps and Solution

摘要

Partogram is a graphical representation of labour. It is used for monitoring maternal and fetal well-being. Abnormalities in labour and prolonged labour can be detected using partogram. But partogram is not being used effectively due to low availability, lack of training, staff shortage, poor documentation etc. As a result, there is an increase in maternal and fetal mortality and morbidity. This clearly indicates that tailor-made solutions are necessary to improve pregnancy outcomes especially in countries like India. e-Partogram is one such tool which uses smart algorithms to give indications of prolonged labour, prevent data entry errors and provide accurate documentation of vital parameters of the partograms. Although e-Partograms address the problems of manual partogram - accuracy, lack of physical record of e-partograms, usability and adaptability are few of the factors limiting its usage. The drawbacks of existing solutions of e-Partogram are mitigated by the FetalLite-Partogram, a smart labour monitoring software tool which allows an alphanumeric method of data entry, automatic plotting of graphs and alerts based system to detect complications during labour.