Women's Birth Beliefs During Pregnancy and Postpartum in the Netherlands: A Quantitative Cross-Sectional Study.

Introduction: Women and care providers increasingly regard childbirth as a medical process, resulting in high use of medical interventions, which could negatively affect a woman's childbirth experience. Women's birth beliefs may be key to understanding the decisions they make and the acceptance of medical interventions in childbirth. In this study we explore women's beliefs about birth as a natural and medical process and the factors that are associated with women's birth beliefs.

Integrating women's voices in quality improvement for maternity care: A qualitative study.

Introduction: Improving the quality of maternity care is high on the national agenda in the Netherlands. One aspect gaining significant attention is integrating women's experiences - as users of maternity care - in this quality improvement. The aim of this study was to gain deeper insights into how maternity care professionals in Dutch Maternity Care Collaborations integrate women's voices into quality improvement as part of integrated maternity care and what role midwives can have in this.

Women's decision-making autonomy in Dutch maternity care.

Background: A positive childbirth experience is an important outcome of maternity care. A significant component of a positive birth experience is the ability to exercise autonomy in decision-making. In this study, we explore women's reports of their autonomy during conversations about their care with maternity care practitioners during pregnancy and childbirth.

Sources of information used by women during pregnancy and the perceived quality.

Background: Access to reliable information is critical to women's experience and wellbeing during pregnancy and childbirth. In our information-rich society, women are exposed to a wide range of information sources. The primary objective of this study was to explore women's use of information sources during pregnancy and to examine the perceived usefulness and trustworthiness of these sources.

Validating a framework of women's experience of the perinatal period; a scoping review.

Objective: The aim of this paper is to identify and explain the factors that make up a woman's experience of the perinatal period. We accomplish this by validating a framework, described in an earlier study, that identifies the distinct dimensions of the perinatal experience.

Design: We conducted a scoping review, using five online databases, to identify and categorize studies that investigate women's experience of the perinatal period.

Dimensions in women's experience of the perinatal period.

A positive experience of the perinatal period is significant for women in midwifery care. The literature on women's experiences of the care in this period is extensive. However, a clear overview of the dimensions important for women's experiences is lacking.