Ongoing relationships with a personal focus: mothers' perceptions of birthcentre versus hospital care

Objective: to describe women's perceptions of care in Western Australian bi rth centres following a previous hospital birth. Design, setting and participants: an exploratory study was undertaken to ex amine the care experiences of women from three Western Australian birth cen tres. Data were obtained from 17 women whose interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed. The research focused upon women's perceptions of their re cent birth centre care as compared to previous hospital care during childbi rth. Findings: four key themes emerged from the analysis: 'beliefs about pregnan cy and birth, 'nature of the care relationship', 'care interactions' and 'c are structures'. The themes of 'care interactions' and 'care structures' wi ll be presented in this paper. Care interactions refer to women's opportuni ties to develop rapport with their carers. Care structures involved the org anisational framework in which care was delivered. The first two themes of 'beliefs about pregnancy and birth' and the 'nature of the care relationshi p' were discussed in a previous paper. Key conclusions and implications for practice: differences in opportunities for care interactions and care structures were revealed between birth cent re and hospital settings. Ongoing, cumulative contacts with midwives in the birth-centre setting were strongly supported by women as encouraging the d evelopment of rapport and perception of 'being known' as an individual. Add itionally, care structures tailored to women were advocated over the system atised, fragmented care found in hospital settings. (C) 2001 Harcourt Publi shers Ltd.