Labour will progress where māmā feel safe: Constructing birth-place decision making in primary birth centres

Abstract

High rates of intervention in birth is a significant health issue. Primary birth centres are midwife-led sites for care with lower rates of intervention in birth than hospitals. Yet hospital births dominate birthplace decision-making in New Zealand. In-depth interviews with 24 health workers associated with four primary birth centres aim to identify how confidence in a primary centre birth is built. Thematic analysis demonstrates how midwives discursively and visually re-centred birth as a normal physiological process challenging hospital as the taken-for-granted place for care. We conclude that midwives’ neurohormonal understandings of birth builds responsiveness to the birth-place ontologies of clients.