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Patient-centred consent in women's health: does it really work in antenatal and intra-partum care?

Nicholls, Jacqueline; David, Anna L; Iskaros, Joseph; Lanceley, Anne; (2022) Patient-centred consent in women's health: does it really work in antenatal and intra-partum care? BMC Pregnancy Childbirth , 22 , Article 156. 10.1186/s12884-022-04493-6. Green open access

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Abstract

BACKGROUND: Legal and social changes mean that information sharing and consent in antenatal and intrapartum settings is contentious, poorly understood and uncertain for healthcare professionals. This study aimed to investigate healthcare professionals' views and experiences of the consent process in antenatal and intrapartum care. METHODS: Qualitative research performed in a large urban teaching hospital in London. Fifteen healthcare professionals (obstetricians and midwives) participated in semi-structured in-depth interviews. Data were collectively analysed to identify themes in the experiences of the consent process. RESULTS: Three themes were identified: (1) Shared decision-making and shared responsibility -engaging women in dialogue is often difficult and, even when achieved, women are not always able or do not wish to share responsibility for decisions (2) Second-guessing women - assessing what is important to a woman is inherently difficult so healthcare professionals sometimes feel forced to anticipate a woman's views (3) Challenging professional contexts - healthcare professionals are disquieted by consent practice in the Labour ward setting which is often at odds with legal and professional guidance. CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest that there is a mismatch between what is required of healthcare professionals to effect an antenatal or intrapartum consent process concordant with current legal and professional guidance and what can be achieved in practice. If consent, as currently articulated, is to remain the barometer for current practice, healthcare professionals need more support in ways of enabling women to make decisions which healthcare professionals feel confident are autonomous whatever the circumstances of the consultation.

Type: Article
Title: Patient-centred consent in women's health: does it really work in antenatal and intra-partum care?
Location: England
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1186/s12884-022-04493-6
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12884-022-04493-6
Language: English
Additional information: This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.
Keywords: Antenatal care, Choice, Consent, Healthcare professionals’ views, Intra-partum care, Women’s health
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL EGA Institute for Womens Health
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10144897
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