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.

Evaluating midwifery-led antenatal care: using a programme logic model to identify relevant outcomes.

Background: a range of initiatives has been introduced in Ireland and internationally in recent years to establish midwifery-led models of care, generally aimed at increasing the choices available for women for maternity care. A midwifery-led antenatal clinic was first established at the study site (a large urban maternity hospital in Dublin) and extended over recent years. This paper reports on the design of an evaluation of these midwives clinics, in particular the use of a programme logic model to select outcomes to be included in the evaluation.