Choice? Factors That Influence Women’s Decision Making for Childbirth

Abstract

This article reports the findings from a mixed-methods study on factors that influence women's decisions about birth, with the view that women's decision making about birth can affect the use of cesarean surgery.Data was collected from focus groups and structured postpartum interviews and was analyzed using the Consensual Qualitative Research method. The findings relate specifically to the factors reported as influential in making decisions about birth including how the women categorized, prioritized, and/or favored certain types of knowledge about modes of birth. Four major information categories were identified but only stories about birth and/or attending a birth appeared to have a lasting effect on birth choices. These findings have implications for prenatal and perinatal education and nursing practice.

Place, provider and timing: Factors influencing the overuse of cesarean in low-risk primigravid women

“…A secondary aim of the interview was to explore how participants reconciled the expectations that they reported prior to birth and the reality of their labor and birth. The findings related to that aim are reported elsewhere [24,25] .…”

“…Details of the data collection and analytic methods as related to this analysis are described briefly below and the qualitative analysis is described in full elsewhere [24,25] . The analysis reported here only used data from the postpartum interviews.…”

“…The underlying assumption for the study was that the decisions women make about the management of their labor could influence the use of CS. The qualitative study findings about the preconceptions women have about their birth experience are published elsewhere [24,25] . The focus of this paper is to report the association between the use of multiple clinical factors and interventions, namely type of provider (midwife or obstetrician), place of birth (home or hospital), cervical dilation on admission, use of continuous electronic fetal monitoring, epidural anesthesia, and oxytocin use and the type of birth (cesarean or vaginal birth).…”

Factors and determinants associated with home based deliveries among women in Muteteshi area, a peri-urban of Kapiri, Zambia

“…Generally, the prevailing situation in Zambia is that women resident in urban areas, mostly deliver in health facilities, while a variety of factors including: (i) Distance from the health facility, (ii) spouse decisions, (iii) womens' educational standards and (iv) the poverty situations have been associated with the choice of place of delivery in rural areas [11,12,13]. For most rural women, certain unpalatable behaviours presented by care providers on delivering mothers, coupled with other negative birth stories heard from family members and friends can completely make them lose confidence in delivering at a health facility [14]. It is a fact therefore, that every pregnant woman stays well resolved and preconceived on the decision made on the place of delivery, whether home based or at health facility.…”

“…It is a fact therefore, that every pregnant woman stays well resolved and preconceived on the decision made on the place of delivery, whether home based or at health facility. To some extent, some women also make advance arrangements, to select particular birth attendants they would be comfortable with, when their date was due [14].In a study conducted among the rural population of Bangladeshi, it was revealed that the level of literacy affected the place of delivery in that the larger population of those who had deliveries at home were among those that didn't go very far with their educational standards [15]. The current study involved the elucidation of factors of educational standard of mothers, distance from the health facility coupled with other factors of the age group of mothers and the influence of husband on place of delivery.…”