Birthing at home: the resolution of expectations

To describe the experience of ten couples who have had a home birth in Western Australia.

Using a phenomenological approach, ten parent couples were interviewed and three home-birth videos observed. Of the ten couples, four discussed their first child's home birth. The remaining six couples had three or four children who had been born at home.

The essence of these parents' experiences of home birth was gained through identifying significant statements from transcripts and field notes and clustering these into the four themes of 'constructing the environment'; 'assuming control'; 'birthing'; and 'resolving expectations'. The first two themes were presented in a previous paper (Morison et al 1998). The latter two themes are now presented. The theme 'birthing' was where parents elaborated on their birth beliefs, discussed the actual birth and shared aspects of the relationship between the couple and the midwife. 'Resolving expectations' concerned the process of parents forming expectations, experiencing the reality of birth and then evaluating whether expectations were met.

The development of a supportive relationship between couples and their midwife was essential during this transition to parenthood. Resolving expectations was an essential process that the parents undertook to clarify the meaning of their birth experience, and thereby acknowledge its uniqueness.

The findings are important to midwives' practice as they reveal the value clients place on a shared philosophy about birth. Midwives, in any setting, can reflect on their own birthing beliefs and determine their compatibility with their clients' beliefs.