Researchers are set to examine how the features of a birthplace setting could influence the outcome of a woman’s labour.

The three-year study will examine between 20 and 30 women across NSW and the ACT in different birth unit settings, possibly ranging from tertiary hospitals and birth centres to primary birth units.

Sydney’s University of Technology has received $227,000 in Australian Research Council funds to conduct the study examining a connection between birthing room designs, mothers’ stress levels and the potential risk of stress to newborns.

UTS lead researcher and midwifery professor Maralyn Foureur said high stress in labouring and birthing women could disrupt the normal physiological processes involved in the complex neuro-hormonal event.

"If the mother becomes stressed her physiology may be disrupted to the point that she produces the hormone adrenaline that interferes with oxytocin production and her labour will slow down or stop – and the mother will therefore need an intervention to proceed to the birth," she said.

"If she is very frightened she may produce such high levels of adrenaline that blood is diverted from her non essential organs, the abdomen mainly, towards her limbs and brainstem to maintain essential functions such as the need to run away from threat.

"In this case, oxygen-loaded blood is diverted away from the uterus and the baby may suffer fetal distress.

"Both slow labour and fetal distress lead to most interventions in childbirth and interventions ultimately increase risks to both mothers and babies."

UTS has developed a special device, named the Birth Unit Design Spatial Evaluation Tool (BUDSET), to score birth units on a comprehensive range of design characteristics.

"The total score on the BUDSET indicates which birth units are optimally designed to be low stress environments that are more likely to support women to labour and birth physiologically," Professor Foureur said.

"We will choose a range of high, medium and low scoring birth units in which to conduct our research."