Choice in episiotomy - fact or fantasy: a qualitative study of women's experiences of the consent process

Abstract Background Consent to episiotomy is subject to the same legal and professional requirements as consent to other interventions, yet is often neglected. This study explores how women experience and perceive the consent process. Methods Qualitative research in a large urban teaching hospital i...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Tanya Djanogly (Author), Jacqueline Nicholls (Author), Melissa Whitten (Author), Anne Lanceley (Author)
Format: Book
Published: BMC, 2022-02-01T00:00:00Z.
Subjects:
Online Access:Connect to this object online.
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!

MARC

LEADER 00000 am a22000003u 4500
001 doaj_3313ceb8d4e148729f5c0570d5e18df5
042 |a dc 
100 1 0 |a Tanya Djanogly  |e author 
700 1 0 |a Jacqueline Nicholls  |e author 
700 1 0 |a Melissa Whitten  |e author 
700 1 0 |a Anne Lanceley  |e author 
245 0 0 |a Choice in episiotomy - fact or fantasy: a qualitative study of women's experiences of the consent process 
260 |b BMC,   |c 2022-02-01T00:00:00Z. 
500 |a 10.1186/s12884-022-04475-8 
500 |a 1471-2393 
520 |a Abstract Background Consent to episiotomy is subject to the same legal and professional requirements as consent to other interventions, yet is often neglected. This study explores how women experience and perceive the consent process. Methods Qualitative research in a large urban teaching hospital in London. Fifteen women who had recently undergone episiotomy were interviewed using a semi-structured interview guide and data was analysed using thematic analysis. Results Three themes captured women's experiences of the episiotomy consent process: 1) Missing information - "We knew what it was, so they didn't give us details," 2) Lived experience of contemporaneous, competing events - "There's no time to think about it," and 3) Compromised volitional consent - "You have no other option." Minimal information on episiotomy was shared with participants, particularly concerning risks and alternatives. Practical realities such as time pressure, women's physical exhaustion and their focus on the baby's safe delivery, constrained consent discussions. Participants consequently inferred that there was no choice but episiotomy; whilst some women were still happy to agree, others perceived the choice to be illusory and disempowering, and subsequently experienced episiotomy as a distressing event. Conclusions Consent to episiotomy is not consistently informed and voluntary and more often takes the form of compliance. Information must be provided to women in a more timely fashion in order to fulfil legal requirements, and to facilitate a sense of genuine choice. 
546 |a EN 
690 |a Episiotomy 
690 |a Consent 
690 |a Patient experience 
690 |a Qualitative 
690 |a Gynecology and obstetrics 
690 |a RG1-991 
655 7 |a article  |2 local 
786 0 |n BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, Vol 22, Iss 1, Pp 1-7 (2022) 
787 0 |n https://doi.org/10.1186/s12884-022-04475-8 
787 0 |n https://doaj.org/toc/1471-2393 
856 4 1 |u https://doaj.org/article/3313ceb8d4e148729f5c0570d5e18df5  |z Connect to this object online.