Vanora Hundley is Professor of Midwifery at Bournemouth University. She has worked as a nurse and midwife in the UK, Hungary and the USA. This includes working with the World Health Organization over the last decade - she is currently a member of the WHO Technical Advisory Group on WHO Maternal and Perinatal Health Guidelines. Vanora has led a range of studies in the reproductive health field both in the UK and internationally. She conducted one of the first randomised controlled trials of midwife-led care. She currently co-leads the Centre for Midwifery and Women's Health at Bournemouth University, where she has established a programme of maternity research with women and families, including around the early phase of labour. Vanora is passionate about supporting clinicians and practitioners to develop expertise in research. She is a capacity lead for the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR)'s first Challenge (to reduce maternity inequalities) and a mentor in the NIHR Academy Mentoring Programme.

Helen Cheyne is Professor of Maternal and Infant Health Research at the University of Stirling. She qualified first as a nurse and then as a midwife in 1981, working as a midwife in Glasgow and in rural Scotland. Her research interest in early labour began with a series of studies on midwives' decision-making through labour. Her PhD research involved the development and testing of a decision support tool for the diagnosis of labour. She was one of the founding members of the International Early Labour Research Group. Over her long research career she has undertaken research on a wide range of topics relating to women's maternity care experiences and the delivery of maternity services, including perinatal mental health, postnatal care and induction of labour as well as her continuing interest in care in the early phase of labour.

1. Introduction, 1.2 Olivias story, 2. Unsuitable maternity services, 2.1 Women's experience of the early phase of labour in Uganda, 3. The History of the Early Labour Phase: Women's experiences embedded in methodological considerations, 3.1 How is the early phase of labour perceived by Canadian Inuit women?, 4. What do we mean by early labour?, 4.1 Experience of early phase of labour among women in Nepal, 5. Physiology of Labour Onset, 5.1 Women's Experiences in the Early Phase of Labour in Iran, 6. What brings women into hospital in early labour?, 7. Women's experiences of early labour, 7.1 Amish women's experience of the early phase of labour, 8. Digital approaches to early labour support, 9. Innovative service approaches to early labour support, 10. Conclusion