Evaluating midwife-led antenatal care: choice, experience, effectiveness, and preparation for pregnancy.

Objective: to evaluate midwife-led care (MLC) antenatal care compared with antenatal care provided in traditional obstetric-led hospital antenatal clinics (usual care).

Design: a mixed methods approach involving a chart audit, postal survey, focus group and in-depth interviews.

Setting: data were collected at a large maternity hospital and satellite clinics in Dublin from women attending for antenatal care between June 2011 and May 2012.