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MNHQ

Informed consent in pregnancy and during childbirth: Mumsnet and Birthrights survey findings

2 replies

RowanMumsnet · 03/09/2020 15:59

Hello

Some of you will remember that we asked MNers for their thoughts about the process of giving informed consent to medical procedures and choices when it comes to pregnancy and birth.

We're pleased to report that today (after a VERY long COVID-related delay) we're publishing the results of a joint survey with Birthrights outlining the experiences of women who've given birth at least once.

You can see all the details here but the headline results are:

14% say their opinions and decisions when planning for giving birth were overruled
11% say there was an attempt to overrule their opinions and decisions
In total, 24% of the mothers surveyed say their decisions and opinions about their care were not respected
30% say their decisions and opinions were not sought at all
74% say they were given the opportunity to discuss the benefits of a vaginal delivery, but only 42% said they were given the opportunity to discuss the benefits of a caesarean section
61% say they discussed the benefits of giving birth on a hospital ward, but only 38% said they were given the opportunity to discuss the benefits of giving birth at home

Survey respondents were given an outline of the legal position – ‘An expectant mother is the primary decision maker about her care, and the midwives’ and doctors’ role is to advise her’ – and asked whether it reflected their own experience. Less than half (45%) said it did, while 42% said it did not.

There's some evidence that things are getting better: among women who gave birth in the past five years, 47% (compared with 42% of all respondents) said they were given the opportunity to discuss the benefits of a caesarean section. And when asked whether the description of the Montgomery standard reflected their experience, 50% (up from 45%) said it did, while 37% (down from 42%) said it did not.

We hope you'll agree this is a really important issue and interesting findings. We're on a mission to ensure that all pregnant women are aware of their legal rights to be the primary decision makers in their own care - best facilitated by having discussions with midwives and obstetricians during pregnancy, in which each woman's individual risk factors are assessed and she's supported to make the right decisions for her.

As ever would love to know what you think and do please share widely. If you're on Twitter and would like to RT this tweet we'd be very grateful.

We're going to be publishing a guest post next week by Nadine Montgomery, the woman who took her case to the Supreme Court and won, helping to cement pregnant women's rights in law - so please look out for that.

Thanks
MNHQ

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MNHQ

RowanMumsnet · 03/09/2020 16:09

The BBC have put up this film about c-sections - it's prompted by an academic study showing some women end up feeling 'guilty' about having sections because they feel they have to defend themselves against accusations of being 'too posh to push' and all that nonsense. They use some of our stats from our survey and our very own @annacmumsnet is going to be on BBC Radio London today to talk more about what we've found out about how pregnant women are informed about their birth choices.

If you'd like to call into the show and share your experiences of having a c-section and how you felt about it, you can give the Radio London team a call on 0800 731 2000.

MNHQ

RowanMumsnet · 07/09/2020 09:53

@PrivateD00r

Thanks MNHQ. I would be keen to know more about the demographics of the women responding to the report, such as the part of the UK they are from. I would also like to know how the survey was presented to women, was it simply about experiences of maternity care, or did the title immediately mention issues around consent? Because that would potentially have led to sample bias as women who have concerns around consent will obviously be more drawn to it and more likely to reply.
Hi Private. You can see one of our recruitment messages about this survey here - you'll see we flagged it was about taking decisions in pregnancy and birth, but we didn't talk specifically about consent. We know that flagging survey topics too clearly can lead to bias when it comes to recruiting respondents, but with sensitive topics like this we try to give a little bit of info about the topic area so that women who really don't want to 'go there' because of past experiences can give it a swerve.

In terms of regional demographics - 21% in the North of England and Yorkshire, 22% in the Midlands and East of England, 38% in London and the South of England, and 13% in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

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