Elsevier

Midwifery

Volume 19, Issue 4, December 2003, Pages 328-336
Midwifery

A qualitative study of information about available options for childbirth venue and pregnant women's preference for a place of delivery

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0266-6138(03)00042-1Get rights and content

Abstract

Aim: to explore the level of information about possible venues for childbirth among pregnant women, and to establish the midwives’ involvement in giving information and helping women to make choices about where they want to give birth.

Design: qualitative study using tape-recorded unstructured interviews.

Setting: the South East of England.

Participants: 33 pregnant women; 20 planning a hospital birth and 13 planning a home birth recruited between 32 and 42 weeks of pregnancy.

Findings: women planning a home birth were well informed about the options available to them, while the majority of those planning a hospital birth were less informed about the availability of home birth and assumed that the hospital was the only option. Midwives did not initiate the discussion of availability of home birth but supported those who already knew and asked for it.

Conclusions: almost a decade after the adoption of Changing Childbirth (DoH 1993) recommendations as policy in England there is still evidence of lack of information among pregnant women regarding services available to them. In this study the midwives’ reluctance to inform women about home birth as a possible venue for childbirth, has been demonstrated.

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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