Objective: To investigate the views and experiences of Swedish women regarding antenatal, delivery and postpartum care.
Study design: A random sample of women from the birth cohorts 1955, 1959, 1963, 1967 and 1971 resident in the city of Göteborg (n=2880) was invited by letter to complete a questionnaire regarding antenatal, delivery and postpartum care.
Results: The overall response rate was 73% and 1130 (54%) of the 2109 responders had given birth to at least one child. Eighty-one percent of parous women answered that checking blood and urine samples, fetal heart rate, and the measurement of fundal height were the most important procedures in antenatal care. A majority had a positive attitude towards the use of electronic fetal heart rate monitoring (parous 85%; nulliparous 84%). Sixty percent of parous women were aware that ultrasound examination was voluntary and a majority (90%) had a positive attitude towards ultrasound scanning. Forty-three percent of parous women wanted antenatal clinics to be open until 8.00 p.m. A minority of both parous (4%) and nulliparous (4%) women were interested in home delivery. There were more parous (33%) than nulliparous (12%) women who expressed no anxiety at all about the next delivery. Seventy-nine percent of the parous women reported that they would like to have a planned visit with a delivery ward midwife before the next delivery. About 80% reported that they would feel very safe if their partners were present at the delivery (nulliparous 79%; parous 84%). Eighty-five percent preferred a single room or a room together with only one other woman in the postnatal ward. Seventy-two percent of the women wanted to stay 72 hours or less in the postpartum ward and 24% thought there had been too many visitors during the postnatal period. Over 80% were very positive towards breast-feeding. Approximately 80% of all women considered regular contractions up to twelve hours to be acceptable before delivery.
Conclusions: This study has provided some useful information about women's opinion regarding antenatal, delivery and postpartum care which may be taken into account when instigating changes in the maternity care system.