Plan-A
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Planning mode of birth in routine antenatal care: development of a decision aid (Plan-A)
IRAS ID
319232
Contact name
Mairead Black
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Aberdeen
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
researchregistry8238, ISRCTN / Clinicaltrials.gov No
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 1 months, 12 days
Research summary
This NIHR-funded work will develop a decision aid to support pregnant women to choose between planning vaginal or caesarean birth during routine antenatal care.
Childbirth often involves unexpected, sometimes unwanted, medical input, while some women wish they had received assistance to give birth but were not offered it. Both issues can lead to health problems. Aiming for a vaginal or planned caesarean birth each have benefits and harms which, as national guidance has stated for 11 years, should be discussed with women during antenatal care to shape their birth plans. Legal changes in 2015 made this essential. With no resources to support these discussions they do not happen consistently.
Decision aids are tools that provide a framework for balanced consideration of care options to support choice and reduce regret. No decision aid exists for routine planning of how to give birth.
Following expert guidance on developing decision aids the researchers will 1) review scientific evidence and 2) interview doctors, midwives, pregnant women and parents (stakeholders) across the UK to understand how decisions about birth mode plans are made, what a decision aid should look like and when to use it. They will survey stakeholders to identify which outcomes of planned vaginal or caesarean birth are important to know about in advance. They will develop a decision aid which will be tested and refined during stakeholder workshops and in real-life consultations. They will write a plan for how the NHS should adapt to use the decision aid. The financial consequences of using it will be considered.
Our research team includes women, midwives, maternity doctors, and researchers. Eight women with various birth experiences, and who represent other women’s views, will support the research.
We will share the decision aid and our plan for embedding it with the NHS, policymakers and the public.REC name
East of Scotland Research Ethics Service REC 2
REC reference
23/ES/0013
Date of REC Opinion
13 Apr 2023
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion