Women's Decision-Making And Factors Affecting Their Choice Of ...

As soon as the tape recorder was switched off, she talked at length about the
things she does not like about the hospital. These included cleanliness, which seems to
be the main Factor. She says the toilet and bath are not cleaned properly, and that too
many people use the bed linen. She also talked about shortage (Distaff which often
results in women not having any midwife with them during labour, and she did not
want that to happen to her. Noise From other women's babies was another factor she
did not like about the hospital environment.
In the coming interviews, perhaps I should prompt for these issues lithey are
not spontaneously mentioned. The interview was interesting because Nnese is a
midwife, so it was interesting to hear her give the same reasons as other women for
wanting a home birth. It was also interesting to hear about how midwives may feel
about providing home births, having at one point opposed home births herself.
During the interview, Nnese maintained that her only reason for choosing
to have home delivery was her son, as there was no one to look after him if she
went to hospital. However, as the interview progressed she gave other reasons,
including the fact that she did not want to be left alone during labour, and that the
hospital was a clinical environment (See Appendix 6 for Nnese's full interview
transcript).
Each interview was transcribed as soon as possible following the
interview. Those transcribed by the researcher were done on the night following
the interview, while the interview situation was still fresh. However, because of
the workload, some of the transcription was done by a secretarial service. The
tapes were handed to them on the day of the interview, and it took 2-3 days to get
the transcripts back. After transcription, the researcher proof-read all the
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