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. 2024 Jan 15;24(1):42.
doi: 10.1186/s12905-023-02856-5.

Does the birth plan match what is relevant to women? Preferences of Spanish women when giving birth

Isabel Artieta-Pinedo  1   2   3 , Carmen Paz-Pascual  4   5   6 , Arturo Garcia-Alvarez  5   7 , Paola Bully  8 ; Ema-Q Group; Maite Espinosa  5   7
Collaborators, Affiliations

Does the birth plan match what is relevant to women? Preferences of Spanish women when giving birth

Isabel Artieta-Pinedo et al. BMC Womens Health. .

Abstract

Background: To support women in making shared decisions, it is important to know what is relevant to them. The aim is to explore which of the options included in birth plans (BP) are of most interest to women, and which are more controversial. In addition, the possible association of this variability with personal characteristics.

Methods: The data are part of a cross-sectional descriptive study, carried out in xxx, on the clinimetric characteristics of two instruments to measure women's needs in labour and postpartum. Women were recruited consecutively by their midwives during pregnancy check-ups, receive a link to a digital questionnaire and were allowed to provide links to the questionnaires to other pregnant women. Women were asked to determine their level of agreement with statements about the birth environment, accompaniment, pain relief, medical intervention and neonatal care. The relationship between agreement with each statement, socio-demographic variables and fear of childbirth (W-DEQ-A) was analysed using a combination of descriptive statistics to analyse frequencies, and regression models to test the effect of socio-demographic variables and fear of childbirth on those items with the greatest variability.

Results: Two hundred forty-seven women responded. More than 90% preferred a hospital delivery, with information about and control over medical intervention, accompanied by their partner and continuous skin-to-skin contact with the newborn. There are other questions to which women attach less importance or which show greater variability, related to more clinical aspects, like foetal monitoring, placenta delivery, or cord clamping… Various factors are related to this variability; parity, nationality, educational level, risk factor or fear of childbirth are the most important.

Conclusions: Some items referring to the need for information and participation are practically unanimous among women, while other items on technical interventions generate greater variability. That should make us think about which ones require a decision after information and which ones should be included directly. The choice of more interventional deliveries is strongly associated with fear of childbirth.

Keywords: Birth plan; Birth preference; Maternity care; Shared decision-making; women’s views.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Flow-chart of the study
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Percentage of women in each alternative for each option regarding the environment, accompanying person and pain relief during childbirth
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Percentage of women in each alternative for each of the statements about options during childbirth, immediate postpartum and newborn care
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Figure illustrating the degree of agreement with the options/questions and variability, indicating which of them are included in the reference delivery plan
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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