A retrospective: Porter and Macintyre's research note on women's responses to antenatal care provision

Citation

Hundley V (2008) A retrospective: Porter and Macintyre's research note on women's responses to antenatal care provision. MIDIRS Midwifery Digest, 18 (3), pp. 321-324.

Abstract
This article is the second in what is planned to be a series in which we explore classic research studies that have influenced midwifery knowledge and practice. Such studies are vital to our understanding and ability to provide the best, evidence-based care for women. So you might well be asking yourself what a 'research note' is doing in this series. This paper by Porter and Macintyre (1984) arose out of a larger, and perhaps better known, evaluation of the provision of antenatal care in Aberdeen, Scotland (Hall et al 1980, 1985). Formal programmes of antenatal care in the UK date back to 1913 and the work of a Scottish obstetrician, Ballantyne, at the University of Edinburgh (Dodd et al 2002). By the mid-1970s antenatal care had settled into an established routine involving monthly appointments until 28 weeks' gestation, then fortnightly until 36 weeks and finally weekly until birth (Hall et al 1980). The rationale for this routine was less than clear and this led Hall and her colleagues to conduct the study which has been credited with catalysing the reassessment of antenatal care in the UK (Neilson 1996).

Keywords
30; ABILITY; care; commentary; Continuity of Patient Care; DATE; Editorial; ENGLAND; ENTRY; EVALUATION; Evidence based; Female; interest; IRELAND; knowledge; language; Medicine; Midwifery; Midwives; NUMBER; Nursing; Obstetric Care; Patient Satisfaction; Peer Reviewed; Peer-Reviewed; PHYSICIANS; Planned; Practice; Pregnancy; Prenatal Care -- Trends; PROVISION; Research; responses; Science; Scotland; scottish; SERIES; Stirling; UK; understanding; universities; Women; work

Journal
MIDIRS Midwifery Digest: Volume 18, Issue 3