Aspects of Maternity Care in Down Lisburn Trust: Analyses of the Records of Maternity Patients Deemed as Low-Risk on Admission and of Former Patients’ Perceptions of Maternity Care

Citation

Sinclair M, Gardner J, Mackin P, Boreland Z & Hood R (2001) Aspects of Maternity Care in Down Lisburn Trust: Analyses of the Records of Maternity Patients Deemed as Low-Risk on Admission and of Former Patients’ Perceptions of Maternity Care. Downe Lisburn Trust (Northern Ireland). http://www.doctoralmidwiferysociety.org/Recent_Papers.aspx

Abstract
First paragraph: This report represents the first study of maternity patient progress and perceptions of maternity care carried out in Northern Ireland. It is presented in five main sections: this Preamble, the Executive Summary, the Patient Monitoring Data, the Patient Survey and the Patient Interviews. The aims of the study were to: ... explore the extent to which women, deemed as low-risk in terms of the likely need for medical intervention during pregnancy and birth, may be accommodated in a midwife-led model of care in the Down Lisburn Trust. ... explore whether women under different types of care provision have different perceptions of the care they have received. Addressing these aims has involved three empirical studies on data collected from maternity patients of the two hospitals, Downpatrick and Lagan Valley. These three studies are summarised thus: - An analysis of the extent to which a sample of pregnant women, deemed as low-risk, remain low-risk throughout labour;  - A questionnaire survey of a sample of mothers' perceptions of the care they experienced; - An interview survey of a sample of mothers' perceptions of the care they experienced. A variable common to all three studies was the model of care experienced by the women. The definitions of the five alternative models used by the two hospitals are presented in Table 1 below. Note that Midwife-led Care is formally only available in the Lagan Valley Hospital.