How are decisions made to access a planned epidural in labour? Midwife-woman interactions in antenatal consultations.

CONCLUSIONS: The lack of involvement by midwives may be linked to the non-directive ethos that prevails in maternity care. It is argued that, in this dataset, the institutional imperative for women to know and decide on pain relief while pregnant in order to allocate to a model of care is prioritised over women's aspirations and expectations of childbirth. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: By analysing the ways in which midwives and women interact at the point in time at which decisions were made to plan access to an epidural we can continue to reveal underlying forces that drive the rising rates of medical interventions in childbirth. This paper also contributes to research evidence on how midwives manage the potentially contradictory dialect between supporting women's childbirth preferences while also managing institutional requirements and evidence-based practice. PMID: 31887470 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Midwifery - Category: Midwifery Authors: Tags: Midwifery Source Type: research