Women's experiences of unplanned pre-hospital births: A pilot study

Prehospital births are fairly rare in Sweden but occasionally occur in the ambulance care system. The ambulance nurse's experience of prehospital births has previously been studied, but there is a lack of research that depicts the woman's perspective of a prehospital birth.

To describe women's experiences of unplanned prehospital births.

A qualitative questionnaire consisting of six open-ended questions that encouraged participants to describe their prehospital-birth experience. Eight women answered the survey and nine birth stories were included. A qualitative content analysis with an inductive approach was used as an analysis method.

The analysis of the texts resulted in four main categories. The main categories were an unpredictable event, the woman's suffering, her perceived gratitude and the importance of the ambulance nurse now and in the future. The main category of women's suffering resulted in two subcategories: physical stresses and psychological and emotional suffering.

The women are not prepared to give birth to a child outside the hospital, and the course of events happen quickly. A prehospital birth is described as a tumultuous event for women. The ambulance nurse has a central role in the care outside the hospital. The advice women suggest to ambulance nurses are remaining calm and safe no matter what the situation looks like, listening to the mother and meeting the woman's wishes. Proposals for further research are to investigate the importance of further education in childbirth care for ambulance nurses and how that affects the care of women and their family.