Women's experience of control in labour and childbirth

This qualitative study used a phenomenological approach to interpret the lived experience of control in labour and childbirth. Semistructured interviews were carried out with nine primigravid women who gave birth in a maternity hospital in Ireland. The interviews were transcribed verbatim, and the data were analysed using frameworks influenced by Smith et al (2009) and van Manen (1990). The themes that emerged were then categorized into what Smith et al (2009) referred to as superordinate themes. The participants' experiences of control in childbirth were both positive and negative and the findings concurred with the literature to suggest that control is indeed important in the experience of childbirth. The study highlights the need for greater midwifery input into antenatal care in an attempt to prepare women for childbirth. This preparation should not be limited to antenatal education-it also involves the provision of emotional and psychological support. It is the role of the midwife to prepare women for the normal physiological process of childbirth, but also, to prepare them for the unpredictable nature of such an event.