A qualitative study of information about available options for childbirth venue and pregnant women's preference for a place of delivery
Section snippets
Background
The publication of Changing Childbirth (Department of Health (DoH) 1993), and the subsequent adoption of its recommendations as policy in England in 1994 brought some hope that real choice and control would be in women's hands (Ralston 1994). Midwives were recommended as better placed to take charge of the care of all women with normal pregnancies (DoH 1993). The policy document recommended that women should be empowered by being given adequate information about all services and choices
Design
A grounded theory approach (Glaser & Strauss 1967) was used to elicit pregnant women's views about their knowledge of possible venues available to them for childbirth, and to elicit midwives’ involvement in giving pregnant women information, and assisting them to decide where to give birth. Unstructured interviews were conducted by the researcher (BCM) at the women's own homes; each participant was interviewed only once.
Access and ethical considerations
The study was conducted in two areas in the South-East of England using one
Findings and Discussion
All women who were invited to participate in the study did. All were of British, Caucasian origin except for one whose origin was Indian. The age, marital status, and parity of those who participated are presented in Table 1. Women in the home birth group had more college and university degrees than those in the hospital birth group. Other studies have also found women planning a home birth to be generally better educated (Cohen 1982, Schneider 1986, Eakins 1989, Rooks et al. 1989, Soderstrom
Acknowledgements
This study was fully funded by the European Institute of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Surrey as part of a PhD study by Banyana Cecilia Madi.
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