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

Chairmen of Local Medical Committees wanted home confinements to continue.
They, however, stressed the need for women to choose whether they wanted to
have their babies at home, and for proper assessments to be made to ensure the
woman's home is safe. In paragraph 9, the report states that "the majority view
was, therefore, that domiciliary midwifery should continue."
states that:
In its interpretations of the Medical Officers' views, the Peel Committee
"...notwithstanding the majority of responding Chairmen recording views in
favour, or acknowledging a need for continuance, of domiciliary midwifery, no
extremity of view is prevalent. General practitioners are clearly aware that the
indications, both medical and social, for home confinement need to be much more
stringently assessed than those for a hospital confinement, in which risks are
minimised" (para 145).
There is no indication, from the summary of the chairmen's responses, that
they considered hospital to have fewer risks than the home. On the contrary, the
summary states:
"Some [chairmen] expressed the view that the present trend towards hospital
confinement is largely the result of a misleading pressure on the public,
encouraging them to believe that hospital confinement is always better. They felt
that this was not necessarily true" (para 5).
It would appear from the chairmen's submissions that they were against
the discontinuation of domiciliary midwifery. They felt that it was
psychologically better for a woman to have her baby at home, that the birth of a
child is a family matter, and should if possible take place in the shelter of the
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