Mybirthplace ; useful for helping inform womens decision making ? 3.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
What role does the decision support tool "mybirthplace" play in women's information gathering and decision making about how and when women make a decision about place of birth?
IRAS ID
156590
Contact name
Daisy A R Wiggins
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 6 months, 8 days
Research summary
Health professionals and women accessing health care are increasingly recognising the importance of shared decision making within pregnancy and supporting decision making is considered a core issue for midwifery practice . Women are now actively seeking greater involvement in decisions made regarding their care including the choice made about place of birth; unfortunately evidence still shows only 51% of women feel they received enough information to help decide where to have their baby. Decision Support Tools (DST) are a type of intervention that uses information from the best available sources to provide individuals with risks, benefits and outcomes regarding specific treatment options, thus giving them consistent information to assist in the process of making an informed choice. Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust has created a DST to support women with the choice of where to give birth the tool is called MYBIRTHPLACE. The aim of this research is to explore women’s information gathering and decision making behaviours during pregnancy and to identify the stage at which women make a decision about the place of birth and whether they feel that the DST was useful in making the decision. It is important to understand how woman feel about using the tool, how the tool was given to them by their midwife and whether they felt it supported them to make a decision. Fundamentally it is important for the Hospital Trust to understand whether the tool is useful for its design purpose to help women make an informed choice by 36 weeks of pregnancy. The study uses quantitative questionnaires pre and post intervention, a follow up survey (28 weeks) and a qualitative interview at 36 weeks in a mixed method study to address these aims.
REC name
South Central - Hampshire B Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/SC/0506
Date of REC Opinion
1 Dec 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion