Women's reasons and motivations around planning a home birth with a qualified midwife in Spain

Abstract

Aims: The aim of this study was to describe and understand the reasons and motivations that lead a woman to choose home birth in Spain.

Design: A qualitative study based on Gadamer's hermeneutic phenomenology was carried out.

Methods: In-depth interviews were conducted with 24 women who had planned a home birth in the last year. The recruitment phase was carried out over a 3-week period during the month of March 2021. Inductive analysis was used to find themes based on the data obtained.

Results: Four main themes emerged from the data analysis: (1) Women's home birth decision making, (2) Partner as the main support, (3) Need to prepare for childbirth and (4) Reasons for choosing home birth.

Conclusion: The women in this study spent a lot of time and dedication to choose the place where they would give birth. According to this research, decision making is influenced by multiple factors, both positive and negative, such as women's individual beliefs and values. The main reasons why women chose a home birth were the intimacy and security of the home, the accompaniment and the desire for a natural and free birth.

Impact: This study adds knowledge about the factors that influence the decision of women who choose home birth in Spain and the reasons and motivations that lead them to do so. In addition, it raises new questions about the satisfaction of women giving birth in the hospital as well as outside the hospital, and the quality of service provided by health professionals in the current Spanish public maternity system.

Keywords: birth setting; decision making; expectations; home childbirth; midwifery; midwives; mothers; motivation; nursing; qualitative research.