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

A quick scan of the studies discovered that most did not address the subject of the
review. The search term childbirth was, therefore, excluded.
Another finding during the first stage of the search was that the database
Bids ISI duplicated references retrieved using the Web of Science database. As
Bids ISI database was going to terminate services at the end of July 2000, it was
dropped from the list of databases to search. In addition, The Web of Science
database identified extra studies not retrieved using Bids ISI. In short, therefore,
the preliminary stage paved the way for the second stage of the review, where
decisions about the specific question to address and how to go about it were made.
Second stage
During the second stage, a research protocol was developed to guide the
review. The protocol defined the question and methods to be used, as a way of
avoiding bias (Mohar and Olkin 1995). Criteria for inclusion and exclusion of
studies were laid down. Search terms and databases to be included were also
refined. The main question for the review was to identify studies looking at
factors seen by women as influential in the choice of place of delivery.
Inclusion Criteria
The studies considered for inclusion in the review were all primary studies
about choice of place of delivery, regardless of design.
In addition to the search strategy described in the first stage, the journals
kept at the University of Surrey library and shown in Table 3 were hand searched:
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