Women’s views on how to promote home birth as a realistic choice
Research type
Research Study
Full title
What are women’s views on home birth? A study to inform the development of practical strategies that will promote birth at home as a choice for low-risk, multiparous women.
IRAS ID
153176
Contact name
Karen L Shaw
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Birmingham
Research summary
The Birthplace Study was undertaken by the University of Oxford to examine the impact of place of birth on mothers who had no complications in pregnancy and their babies. This extensive study (including almost 65,000 women) provided strong evidence that birth at home was as safe as birth in an obstetric unit for ’low risk’ women having their second or subsequent babies. This has led the Birmingham Women’s Hospital (BWH) to review their home birth services with the intention of providing real choice for women about place of birth. This will involve the development of a new home birth team to provide dedicated care to pregnant women who plan to have their babies at home. This embraces the Government’s choice agenda in maternity care, as well as addressing a rising local and national birth rate which puts pressure on the availability of hospital beds. However, the team recognises that they need to find improved ways to engage women who would not have traditionally considered home birth. This study addresses this knowledge gap by exploring women’s views about home birth and the factors that influence decision-making and choices. It will also identify what support and information will support women to consider home birth as a safe and realistic option. These issues will be explored in a series of focus groups with women attending mother and baby groups at local children’s centres. These will follow best practice guidelines. The findings will then be discussed with the home birth team to examine how this information can be translated into practice, with a view to providing accessible, evidence-based information that will support women to make an informed choices about their place of birth.
REC name
South Central - Oxford B Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/SC/1007
Date of REC Opinion
6 Jun 2014
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion