The University of Birmingham has received the ‘UK Research Paper of the Year’ award for its research paper on the results from BUMPES trial, at The BMJ Awards 2018.
The randomised, controlled BUMPES trial was conducted to investigate the most ideal position for a first-time mother, administered with low dose epidural, to improve the chance of a birth without interventions such as forceps or caesarean.
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The trial enrolled 3,093 women across 41 UK hospitals between October 2010 and January 2014. It was funded by the National Institute for Health Research.
Based on the findings, the researchers concluded that adopting a lying down on their side position, instead of being upright, during the later stages of labour provides a higher chance of delivery without medical intervention.
University of Birmingham, Birmingham Clinical Trials Unit director Peter Brocklehurst said: “This study shows there are simple things we can do which can improve outcomes for women and their babies.
“Adopting this practice into routine clinical care for these women will be easy and will mean tens of thousands of women and babies in the UK, and hundreds of thousands of women and babies in the world, will be able to have a straightforward birth without the need for forceps, vacuum or Caesarean section.”
Another research paper authored by the university on the STAMPEDE trial results was also short-listed for the BMJ Awards 2018.
Funded by the Cancer Research UK, the STAMPEDE trial indicated that addition of abiraterone drug to hormone therapy at the beginning of treatment improves survival in prostate cancer patients by 37%.
