Rethinking the birth plan after the pandemic: a qualitative study of the view of Spanish midwives

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• dc.contributor.author Martín Badia, Júlia
• dc.contributor.author Goberna-Tricas, Josefina
• dc.contributor.author Obregón Gutiérrez, Noemí
• dc.contributor.author Biurrun Garrido, Ainoa
• dc.date.accessioned 2025-11-25T16:09:44Z
• dc.date.available 2025-11-25T16:09:44Z
• dc.date.issued 2024
• dc.date.updated 2025-11-25T16:09:44Z
• dc.description.abstract Background: The birth plan promotes women's autonomy allowing them to express their care preferences and to participate actively in decision-making. During the Covid-19 pandemic, concerns about infection placed limitations on women's decision-making and infringed upon some of their rights. The role of the birth plan, after the pandemic, needs to be reassessed to protect women's rights and ensure high-quality maternity care. Research aim: To explore Spanish midwives' perspective on the principle of respect for autonomy and how this is reflected in the birth plan, and to identify aspects that can be improved in the new post-pandemic scenario. Methods: A descriptive phenomenological study of the experiences of Spanish midwives before, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic that addresses the use of the birth plan and the impact that the pandemic has had on women's rights. Individual online interviews and face-to-face focus groups were used. Results: Prior to the pandemic, midwives felt that birth plans had problems related to the unrealistic expectations of some women as well as to a lack of awareness of their usefulness. During the pandemic, women mobilized to challenge restrictive regulations, but faced problems with information dissemination and professional coordination, leading to continued infringement of women's rights post-pandemic. Conclusion: To enhance the effectiveness of the birth plan in supporting women's autonomy, a deliberative approach is needed, along with improvements in midwives' ethical and communication skills. The COVID-19 pandemic has created a new scenario in which the discussion about the possibility of increasing the number of birthing centres or offering home birth care funded by the public system, should be debated.
• dc.description.sponsorship The publication of these results is thanks to Grant PID2022-140179OB-100 funded by Spanish MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and, "ERDF A way of making Europe", by the "European Union". All of authors thank the midwives for their participation and time dedicated to the research.
• dc.format.mimetype application/pdf
• dc.identifier.citation Martín Badia J, Goberna-Tricas J, Obregón-Gutiérrez N, Biurrun-Garrido A. Rethinking the birth plan after the pandemic: a qualitative study of the view of Spanish midwives. Heliyon. 2024;10(23):e40474. DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e40474
• dc.identifier.doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e40474
• dc.identifier.issn 2405-8440
• dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/10230/72007
• dc.language.iso eng
• dc.publisher Elsevier
• dc.relation.ispartof Heliyon. 2024;10(23):e40474
• dc.relation.projectID info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/3PE/PID2022-140179OB-100
• dc.rights © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).
• dc.rights.accessRights info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
• dc.rights.uri http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
• dc.subject.keyword Childbirth environment
• dc.subject.keyword Labour
• dc.subject.keyword Midwife
• dc.subject.keyword Qualitative research
• dc.subject.keyword Relational autonomy
• dc.title Rethinking the birth plan after the pandemic: a qualitative study of the view of Spanish midwives
• dc.type info:eu-repo/semantics/article
• dc.type.version info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion