Exploring father's influence on their partner's choice regarding place of birth

Pearson, Maria
Marshall, Jayne

Maria Pearson, PGCHE, MSc, BS, RM, midwife teacher University of Nottingham.

Dr Jayne E Marshall, PhD, MA, PGCEA, ADM, RM, RGN, head of school of midwifery and child health/lead midwife for education, Faculty of Health and Social Care and Education, St Georges, University of London/Kingston University. Dr Jayne Marshall was formerly associate professor in midwifery and director of postgraduate taught studies in midwifery at the University of Nottingham.

Pearson M, Marshall JE. MIDIRS Midwifery Digest, vol 24, no 1, June 2014, pp 171–178.

MIDIRS Midwifery Digest 24(2):p 171-178, 2014.

ORIGINAL

Aim:

To explore the influence that fathers have upon their partner's choice of birth place.

Design:

A quantitative survey using a self-completion questionnaire as the data collection tool and the analysis was assisted by the IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences [SPSS]. The study was approved by the Local Research Ethics Committee (LREC) and the Trust's Local Research and Development department.

Participants and setting:

Twenty-one first time English-speaking fathers whose partners had a hospital birth in the autumn of 2011 within one NHS Trust in the East Midlands, United Kingdom. This Trust offered midwife-led care for low-risk women and joint midwifery/obstetric care for those experiencing complications affecting maternal or fetal well-being.

Results:

The majority of fathers jointly decided the birth place with their partners and in doing so influenced the place of birth. Fifteen (71%) fathers attended at least one antenatal contact with their partner; eight of these did not feel this influenced the choice of place of birth. Fourteen (48%) fathers were offered hospital and home birth for place of birth. Nineteen (61%) fathers cited ‘safety’ as the most frequent reason for choosing hospital birth. There was only one home birth during the data collection period despite all women being eligible for a home birth according to the entry criteria. This questionnaire was given to the father by the midwife attending the home birth but was not returned. With the exception of one father all would consider hospital birth for future births.

Conclusions and implications for practice:

This study revealed that fathers perceive hospital birth to be safer than birth at home or in midwife-led units. Consequently, midwives responsible for discussing the options for birth place with parents need to offer all the available options (dependent upon the woman's risk status) without any bias toward one location over another. The parents can then make an informed decision. Dialogue regarding place of birth must include the aspect of safety to alleviate the myth that hospital birth is the safest option for the place of birth for low-risk women.