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Women's experience of transfer from community-based to consultant-based maternity care
Objective:
To investigate women's experience of transfer from community-based to consultant obstetric care.
Design:
Semi-structured interviews three to eight weeks postnatally, which were taped, transcribed and analysed according to grounded theory.
Setting:
Community-based maternity service, Sheffield, England.
Participants:
Twelve women who had been transferred to consultant care in late pregnancy or labour.
Main Outcome Measures:
Categories which described and explained women's experience and that could be validated by checking back against the interview data.
Findings:
There was a strong potential for disappointment with their labours, but this could be ameliorated by certain aspects of care, namely information and explanation, debriefing, and continuity of care.
Conclusion:
Transfer is an inevitable consequence for a proportion of community-booked women but need not be a negative experience, with appropriate care.