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Can Fam Physician
Vol. 53, No. 1, January 2007, pp.78 - 83
Copyright © 2007 by The College of Family Physicians of Canada
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Research

Home or away?

Factors affecting where women choose to give birth

Barbara Zelek, MD, CCFP and Eliseo Orrantia, MSC, MD, CCFP
Family physicians at Marathon Family Practice in Ontario.

Heather Poole, MSC
Doctoral candidate at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont.

Jessica Strike, MD
Family medicine resident at the University of Ottawa in Ontario

Correspondence to: Dr Barbara Zelek, Box 353, Marathon, ON P0T 2E0; telephone 807 229-3243; fax 807 229-2672; e-mail bzelek{at}mfp.on.ca

OBJECTIVE To investigate the factors that influence women to deliver their babies in small rural communities rather than in larger centres that have more comprehensive obstetric services, including cesarean section capability and epidural anesthesia.

DESIGN Self-administered survey.

SETTING Marathon, Ont, a rural community of 4500 in north western Ontario that offers low-risk obstetric services and has no local cesarean section capability. The closest referral centre, Thunder Bay, is 300 km away.

PARTICIPANTS Sixty-four women between 16 and 40 years old living in Marathon.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES The relative importance of personal and systemic factors and of beliefs that influence women to choose to give birth in Marathon ratherthan a larger centre. How well informed women are about local obstetric services. How likely women would be to choose to deliver in Marathon if they had low-risk pregnancies.

RESULTS Beliefs were more important than personal and systemic factors in influencing women’s decisions. Respondents were moderately well informed about local obstetric services (mean proportion of correct responses was 66%). Most women with low-risk pregnancies would choose to deliver in Marathon (77.8%).

CONCLUSION For women in Marathon, beliefs are much more important than personal and systemic factors in influencing the decision to give birth in this small rural community.


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Copyright © 2007 by The College of Family Physicians of Canada.