Women's Choice of Health Professional for Maternity Care: Where does the family physician fit in?

Abstract

In a survey of 1629 women, 1115 (68.4%) responded to a self-administered questionnaire designed to determine their use of health care professionals for maternity care and future interest in midwifery servies. Although many women (63.9%) saw their family physician at the beginning of their pregnancy, most (81.8%) were attended by an obstetrician at the birth. Many women (59.9%) were interested in some midwifery care; 11% would have liked complete primary midwifery care for this baby with physician support as necessary.