Conference Proceedings - School of Nursing & Midwifery - Trinity ...

School of Nursing & Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin: 8 th Annual Interdisciplinary Research Conference
Transforming Healthcare Through Research, Education & Technology: 7 th – 9 th November 2007
Conference Proceedings
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Women’s expectation and experience of their first ultrasound
scan at the first antenatal booking visit
Mary Whelan
Position – Midwife Clinical Skills Facilitator
Practice Development Unit
The Rotunda Hospital
Dublin 1
01 8730700 ext 1339
MSc, PG Dip Clinical Practice, Dip Management & Employee
Relations, RM, RGN
mwhelan@rotunda.ie
,
Background to Study
Maternity services in Ireland are predominantly hospital based. In
Dublin there are three public maternity hospitals each catering for in
excess of six thousand eight hundred deliveries per annum. A
potential twenty, first booking visits per day are conducted
alongside additional antenatal clinics. This would appear a relatively
short time in which to conduct the booking visit and discuss the
plethora of associated issues at the meeting the literature regards
as the most important between the pregnant woman and the
midwife (Methven, 1989, Shepard, Rowan, Powell, 2004).
The National Health Promotion Strategy, a recent Government
policy in Ireland (Department of Health and Children (DoHC), 2000)
places emphasis on developing maternity services, which are
responsive to women’s needs while in the past decade policy has
expressed that women’s needs, requirements and choice in
maternity care should be established (DoHC, 1994; DoHC, 1995;
DoHC, 1997). With the exception of an unpublished PhD thesis
“Public Patient Antenatal Care and Childbirth in Dublin: Views of
Service Providers and Users” (Collins, 2002), there is no empirical
literature on women’s views of maternity services in Ireland.
Women’s views and opinions are vital if midwives are to provide and
develop women centred maternity services.
Aim of Study
The aim of the study was to explore women’s expectation and
experience of the first antenatal booking visit as they experienced it
in a large maternity hospital setting in Ireland.
Literature Review
The literature review sought to identify women’s expectation and
experience of their first contact with the maternity care providers
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