Better Births? Understanding women’s choices, decisions, outcomes
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Better Births? Understanding women’s childbirth choices, decisions and outcomes in England: A feminist, Bourdieusian analysis
IRAS ID
244137
Contact name
Georgia Clancy
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Warwick
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 7 months, 4 days
Research summary
This research focuses on women’s choices, decisions and outcomes concerning National Health Service provided childbirth services in England. Since the Changing Childbirth policy in 1993, there has been a growing policy emphasis on giving pregnant women more choice and control over childbirth, including where and with whom they give birth. However, hospital births continue to dominate with current rates at 97.9% (ONS, 2017).
The latest maternity policy, Better Births (2016), offers a renewed enthusiasm for midwife-led units and home births for low-risk mothers. With an emphasis on personalising care, Better Births proposes that women should have their own ‘Personal Maternity Care Budget.’ However, it is important to ask women whether this is a change they want, understand or are even aware of. If indeed women really do have a range of viable birthing options from which to choose, what shapes their choices, how do they make their decisions, and how do these decisions relate to their childbirth outcomes? Given that women are not a homogeneous group, it is important to explore how these processes are contoured by differences between them, such as social class and ‘race’/ethnicity.
This thesis represents the first empirical study from a sociological perspective into women’s maternity experiences under Better Births. Primary research will be based in the Birmingham/ Solihull area, which is an early adopter of the Better Births policy and offers a diverse population of women. An online questionnaire will first be used to elicit demographic information and make a broad assessment of women’s choices, decisions and outcomes of childbirth in the light of this policy. Utilising the online questionnaire data to inform the sampling strategy, face-to-face semi-structured interviews will take place. Data will be analysed through a gendered lens, utilising feminist appropriations of Bourdieu as the conceptual framework.
REC name
West Midlands - Solihull Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/WM/0149
Date of REC Opinion
17 Jul 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion