APOLOGIES FOR CROSS POSTING :YOUR OPINION WANTED
pLEASE REPLY TO BAIBRE KELLY AND NOT TO THE LIST.

Dear Colleagues, 

Jane Sandall and I have recently conducted a large survey of 2750
women’s views and experiences of maternity care in four sites in England
as part of an NHS Executive funded study of Changing Professional Roles
in Maternity Care. We are exploring variations in birth interventions
and are interested in how we define 'normal' birth and the incidence and
variation of this.

The questionnaire recorded interventions in labour using the Intrapartum
Intervention Score (Clement, S., Wilson, J.and Sikorski, J.(1999) ‘The
development of an intrapartum intervention score based on women’s
experiences’, Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology, Vol 17, No
1.)  

To help in the analysis of the data, we are looking to seek opinions as
to what midwives and women feel are acceptable interventions in a
'normal' birth. We are keen to differentiate between interventions that
are common, and ask you to think which are appropriate for a 'normal'
birth. We are seeking your opinion on the following:

>From the following list of 21 items (a-u) which do you think should be
categorised as being part of 1) natural birth, 2)normal birth,
3)Complicated birth

Please place either a 1,2,3 after each question, to indicated how you
feel it should be classified. 

1.natural 
2.normal
3.complicated 

We would be extremely grateful if you would categorise the following
list and email your reply to [log in to unmask] Jane and I will collate
the replies and send an initial summary report to the distribution lists
and of course the findings will be published in due course. 

Thank you once again, 

Bairbre Kelly and Jane Sandall 

a) Did you have your waters broken by a midwife or doctor? 

b) Did you have a drip or needle inserted into a vein in your hand or
arm? 

c) Did you have your labour started off by means of a pessary or some
gel inserted high into your vagina? 

d) Did you receive syntocinon, a drug given through a drip, to start off
labour or speed it up? 

e) Did you have a catheter (thin tube) inserted into your bladder to
drain urine? 

f) Did you have some vaginal examinations (internals) during labour? 

g) Did you have an enema/suppository (something inserted into your
rectum to help you to open your bowels)? 

h) Was a blood sample taken from your arm during labour? 

i) Did you have external monitoring (a transducer on your tummy attached
to a monitor which measures your contractions and prints out the baby’s
heartbeat) at any point during labour? 

j) Did you have internal monitoring (an electrode inserted through your
vagina and clipped on to your baby’s head
which is attached to a monitor)? 

k) Was a blood sample taken from your baby’s scalp during labour? 

l) Did you have a caesarean (an operation where the baby is delivered
through a cut in your tummy)? 

m) Did you have a forceps (or ventouse/vacuum) delivery? 

n) Did you have an episiotomy (a cut to enlarge the vagina)? 

o) Did you have gas and air (entonox) for pain relief during labour? 

p) Did you use TENS (electrode pads stuck to your back which stimulate
your body’s natural painkillers)? 

q) Did you have an injection of pethidine for pain relief during labour? 

r) Did you have an epidural or spinal (a drug injected into your back
which numbs the lower part of your body)? 

s) Did you have a general anaesthetic (anaesthesia that makes you
unconscious/asleep)? 

t) Did you have an injection of syntometrine (a drug used to speed up
delivery of the placenta/afterbirth) just as
your baby was born? 

u) Did you have any stitches (in your vagina or the surrounding area)
after the birth? 


Bairbre Kelly tel: 020 7505 5911 research assistant fax: 020 7505 5866
department of midwifery e-mail: [log in to unmask] city university
philpot street london E1 2EA


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