A population based study of Swedish women's opinions about antenatal, delivery and postpartum care

Objective. To investigate the views and experiences of Swedish women regard ing antenatal, delivery and postpartum care. Study design. A random sample of women from the birth cohorts 1955, 1959, 1 963, 1967 and 1971 resident in the city of Goteborg (n=2880) was invited by letter to complete a questionnaire regarding antenatal, delivery and postp artum care. Results. The overall response rate was 73% and 1130 (54%) of the 2109 respo nders had given birth to at least one child. Eighty-one percent of parous w omen answered that checking blood and urine samples, fetal heart rate, and the measurement of fundal height were the most important procedures in ante natal care. A majority had a positive attitude towards the use of electroni c fetal heart rate monitoring (parous 85%; nulliparous 84%). Sixty percent of parous women were aware that ultrasound examination was voluntary and a majority (90%) had a positive attitude towards ultrasound scanning. Forty-t hree percent of parous women wanted antenatal clinics to be open until 8.00 p.m. A minority of both parous (4%) and nulliparous (4%) women were intere sted in home delivery. There were more parous (33%) than nulliparous (12%) women who expressed no anxiety at all about the next delivery. Seventy-nine percent of the parous women reported that they would like to have a planne d visit with a delivery ward midwife before the next delivery. About 80% re ported that they would feel very safe if their partners were present at the delivery (nulliparous 79%; parous 84%). Eighty-five percent preferred a si ngle room or a room together with only one other woman in the postnatal war d. Seventy-two percent of the women wanted to stay 72 hours or less in the postpartum ward and 24% thought there had been too many visitors during the postnatal period. Over 80% were very positive towards breast-feeding. Appr oximately 80% of all women considered regular contractions up to twelve hou rs to be acceptable before delivery. Conclusions. This study has provided some useful information about women's opinion regarding antenatal, delivery and postpartum care which may be take n into account when instigating changes in the maternity care system.