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Background
Although women in Australia have access to a variety of models of care and birth locations
there is not universal access to all choices due to location, State/Territory and
cost. Recent data from AIHW found most women (40%) accessed public hospital maternity
care that is fragmented in nature. Midwifery continuity of care has been found to
reduce interventions in labour, reduce pre-term birth and increase women’s satisfaction
however only 15% of women in Australia had care through midwifery group practice and
2% have private midwifery care. An essential aspect to evaluating the impact of maternity
models of care is to consider the experiences and attitudes of women who access maternity
care. In 2021 The Birth Experience Study (BESt) surveyed women who had birthed in
Australia in the previous 5 years to explore a variety of factors contributing to
pregnancy, birth and postnatal experiences, including what women would choose if they
were to have another pregnancy.
Aim
To understand the wants and wishes of women when planning a future pregnancy and birth
experience in Australia.
Methods
A qualitative content analysis was undertaken on 6,101 open text responses to the
survey question “Would you do anything different if you were to have another baby”. The open-text quotes were analysed using an inductive content analysis where the
categories developed from the dataset by a team of experienced and developing research
members
Findings
There were seven main categories, five that focused on what women wanted for their
next birth, one where women didn’t want another pregnancy and one where women didn’t
wish to make any changes. The largest category ‘I want to be a better advocate for
myself’ described how women internalised their previous experience, feeling the need
to better advocate for themselves in future to receive the care or experience they
deserved.
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Copyright
© 2022 Published by Elsevier Inc.
