Making the decision
Women viewed the decision to take part as straightforward and none of them recall consulting their birth partner in making the decision.
‘I thought the doctors and midwives and then the lady who explained it was really like calm, she was good, explained it all. I can’t really remember what she said now but I remember thinking at the time, yeah that sounds good, we’ll go for this.’ (Woman 05)
The advantages of understanding the various viewpoints around decision-making was evident in women’s and partners’ recall of events. Some birth partners suggested that their partner was not fully aware given that she was in labour and had received analgesia.
‘She was obviously on gas and air and she’d obviously had injections or whatever, so really she might not have been of the right mind to make a conscious choice like that.’ (Birth partner 10)
However, his partner felt she had sufficient understanding to make a decision.
‘I might have been a bit out of it with the drugs, but I was aware of what was going on and erm I just I had my eyes closed like a lot of the time. I just remember listening to what people would say were saying to me.’ (Woman 10)
One midwife was concerned that a woman she was caring for would not necessarily understand the information.
‘She was bilingual, so we were a little bit concerned about that, but she definitely understood ‘cos she asked questions back. I was concerned at him [obstetrician] consenting her for that whether she understood completely that he was gonna put this device inside her. I was surprised that she consented, but she did consent. Quite, quite clearly.’ (Midwife 8)
All felt that women were provided with sufficient information and that women freely made the decision to participate. Women, partners and obstetricians had a clearer recall of events as the midwives present were busy monitoring the woman, note taking and preparing drugs.