Presence of the Father in the Operating Room During Hyperacute Cesarean Section in General Anesthesia

This study concerns cesarean sections, category 1, meaning those cases where the life of mother and/or fetus is in immedeate danger and the child must be delivered within 15 minutes from activating the cesarean section team. In most hospitals in Denmark, these cesarean sections are most often performed in general anesthesia and the mother is endotracheally intubated.

Previously in these situations, as the mother was rushed from the Labour Ward to the operation room (OR), her spouse/partner, would be placed outside the operating room (OR), and would stay there until the child had been delivered.

In Lillebaelt Hospital, Kolding, Denmark, the newborn-resuscitation table is placed inside the OR. The father would most often be allowed to enter the OR when the child was delivered and placed on the resuscitation table (no matter the status of the child).

However, during spring 2021, Lillebaelt Hospital Kolding updated the policy regarding the handling of the father/partner during cesarean section category 1. Now the father/partner is present in the OR during the whole procedure, including induction of general aesthesia, endotracheal intubation, performance of the cesarean section (drapings are positioned so that the father cannot see the operation field) and potential resuscitation efforts of the newborn.

In another hospital in the same region (Region of Southern Denmark), Aabenraa Hospital, the father is not present in the OR during the cesarean section. He waits in the labour ward.

The investigators therefore wish to investigate how the cesarean section category 1 is experienced by: the father/partner; the mother; the obstetrician; the anestesiologist; the midwife; the OR nurse; the anesthetic nurse, both in Kolding where the father/partner is present in the OR, and in Aabenraa, where the father/partner is not present in the OR during the cesarean sectio.