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

Kingdom is a pluralistic society, with women from diverse cultures and beliefs,
which determine their way of life, and therefore the kind of care they expect.
Additionally, the UK government advocates a woman centred maternity service
(Department of Health 1993b). One obvious question to ask in the light of the
dominant debate about the place of birth is how it is possible to meet the
Department of Health's aim of a woman centred maternity service if the views of
the women are not known. The only way to provide woman centred care is first
to determine from the women what normal care is, according to their beliefs and
individual circumstances.
It is with the above background that this thesis was undertaken. The thesis
examines how much is known about women's views of the process of childbirth,
and goes on to investigate from women significant factors they consiCier when
thinking about where to deliver their babies. First, a history of the traditional
place of birth, which is the home, and factors which led to the change from home
to hospital birth in the United Kingdom is reviewed. NHS policy about maternity
care is discussed because policy determines how care is organised and therefore
sets the standards for consumers about what to expect as normal care.
In other disciplines, such as psychology (Kahneman and Tversky 1984;
Tverslcy and Kahneman 1974), economics and business (Schwing and Albers, Jr.
1980) where an element of risk is involved, decision-making is thought to be
influenced by the individual's perception of the risk. Since childbirth involves
some risk, it is surprising that such an approach has not been employed to
understand women's preferences for different childbirth options. The thesis
reviews risk-perception literature as used in the disciplines named above, and
makes an effort to determine whether the principles could be applied in childbirth
to explain the difference in preferences for home or hospital birth.
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