ArticleBMC pregnancy and childbirth2017
Why do women choose an unregulated birth worker to birth at home in Australia: a qualitative study.
Article in BMC pregnancy and childbirth, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed.
- Validation of the Traditional Chinese version of Mothers on Respect Index (MORi) and Mother's Autonomy in Decision Making (MADM) Scale.International journal of nursing sciences · 2026Article
- When the hospital becomes an option again: a qualitative analysis of women's and their partners' experiences with a designated clinic for women who request different care than recommended in the guidelines.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2025Article
- Death doula working practices and models of care: the views of death doula training organisations.BMC palliative care · 2023Article
- Emerging approaches to redressing multi-level racism and reproductive health disparities.NPJ digital medicine · 2022Article
- Ten years of a publicly funded homebirth service in Victoria: Maternal and neonatal outcomes.The Australian & New Zealand journal of obstetrics & gynaecology · 2022Article
- How to Make the Hospital an Option Again: Midwives' and Obstetricians' Experiences with a Designated Clinic for Women Who Request Different Care than Recommended in the Guidelines.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Exploring the conceptualisation and study of freebirthing as a historical and social phenomenon: a meta-narrative review of diverse research traditions.Medical humanities · 2020Review
- Jordanian women's experiences and constructions of labour and birth in different settings, over time and across generations: a qualitative study.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2020Article
- Why women chose unassisted home birth in Malaysia: a qualitative study.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2020Article
- Birthing outside the system: the motivation behind the choice to freebirth or have a homebirth with risk factors in Australia.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2020Article
- Understanding Myths in Pregnancy and Childbirth and the Potential Adverse Consequences: A Systematic Review.The Malaysian journal of medical sciences : MJMS · 2019Review
- Respectful and disrespectful care in the Czech Republic: an online survey.Reproductive health · 2018Article
- Article
- Experiences of Greek women of water immersion during normal labour and birth. A qualitative study.European journal of midwifery · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIn Australia the choice to birth at home is not well supported and only 0.4% of women give birth at home with a registered midwife. Recent changes to regulatory requirements for midwives have become more restrictive and there is no insurance product that covers private midwives for intrapartum care at home. Freebirth (planned birth at home with no registered health professional) with an unregulated birth worker who is not a registered midwife or doctor (e.g. Doula, ex-midwife, lay midwife etc.) appears to have increased in Australia. The aim of this study is to explore the reasons why women choose to give birth at home with an unregulated birth worker (UBW) from the perspective of women and UBWs.
methodsNine participants (five women who had UBWs at their birth and four UBWs who had themselves used UBWs in the past for their births) were interviewed in-depth and the data analysed using thematic analysis.
resultsFour themes were found: 'A traumatising system', 'An inflexible system'; 'Getting the best of both worlds' and 'Treated with love and respect versus the mechanical arm on the car assembly line'. Women interviewed for this study either experienced or were exposed to mainstream care, which they found traumatising. They were not able to access their preferred birth choices, which caused them to perceive the system as inflexible. They interpreted this as having no choice when choice was important to them. The motivation then became to seek alternative options of care that would more appropriately meet their needs, and help avoid repeated trauma through mainstream care.
conclusionWomen who engaged UBWs viewed them as providing the best of both worlds - this was birthing at home with a knowledgeable person who was unconstrained by rules or regulations and who respected and supported the woman's philosophical view of birth. Women perceived UBWs as not only the best opportunity to achieve a natural birth but also as providing 'a safety net' in case access to emergency care was required.
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