Women's needs from antenatal care in three European countries

To determine the important aspects of antenatal care from a woman's perspective in order to develop a woman-constructed conceptual model of antenatal care.

Grounded theory.

Three European countries: Scotland, Switzerland and The Netherlands.

23 women using routine antenatal care in the three countries were interviewed: seven women in Scotland, seven in Switzerland and nine in The Netherlands.

Three main categories emerged: 'responsibility', 'establishing a sharing trust relationship' and 'support me to be responsible'. The category of 'responsibility', which incorporated the sub-categories 'feeling confident' and 'feeling autonomous', is reported. Despite the many aspects that the women had in common, a divergence of the categories in each of the countries was clearly observed. The main cross-cultural differences were within the sub-category of 'feeling autonomous'.

Responsibility is the main reason why women seek antenatal care. Feelings of confidence and autonomy are substantial attributes of this responsibility. The cultural background of the women seems to cause the differences within the categories. These findings have implications for both the provision and the evaluation of antenatal care.