Making an Informed Choice

“Every woman should be enabled to make informed choices about the care she receives during pregnancy, childbirth and afterwards. It is the responsibility of professionals involved in her care to explain what her choices are, to provide clear, unbiased, comprehensible information, and to support her in considering her options and making her decisions. The choices each woman makes should be respected and supported.”

Why is it important?

As a parent, you have the opportunity and responsibility to make many important decisions about your care during pregnancy, birth, and the time after birth. The decisions you make and the maternity care you receive can have lasting effects on the health and well-being of your baby, yourself, and your family. It is always important to understand whether there is a good rationale for any procedure, drug, test or treatment that is being given or offered to you. In many care settings, certain practices are used freely and even routinely, whether or not the mother or baby have shown a clear need. Although these practices may be of value to women or babies in certain situations, they may be unnecessary for most. They may be disruptive, be uncomfortable, cause more serious side effects, and lead to the use of other interventions. For these reasons, interventions should not be used routinely or unnecessarily.

What does making informed decisions mean?

Making informed decisions means learning and thinking about the best information available on maternity care, and then deciding what’s right for you. The BRAIN/TBRAND technique provides a framework for finding and organising information in order to make an informed choice. This will help ensure that you can get answers to all of your questions and have access to the kind of care that is right for you. It is useful to practise BRAIN/ TBRAND technique as it can be used for any daily decision making that you will need to do, not just within the context of pregnancy, birth & postpartum. With practise, this technique will come naturally in times of stress.

BRAIN

B Benefits (what are the benefits of making this decision) R Risks (what risks are there in choosing this path)A Alternatives (what are all the alternatives)

I Intuition (what does my gut tell me)

N Nothing (what if we just wait for a certain time)

TBRAND

T Time (is there time to discuss and think about this)

B Benefits (what are the benefits of making this decision)

R Risks (what risks are there in choosing this path)

A Alternatives (what are all the alternatives)

N Nothing (what if we just wait for a certain time)

D Decision (what is my decision)

What can I do to help ensure that the care that I receive during labour and birth will be best for me and my baby?

Your choice of caregiver and choice of birth setting can have a major impact on the care that you receive during labour and birth. You may need to explore many possibilities to find a caregiver and birth setting that offer care consistent with the best evidence and with your needs and preferences.It is not possible to know ahead of time exactly what your labour experience will be like. Being as informed as possible in advance will help you deal wisely with any new decisions that may arise at the time. It is important to learn about your options, get answers to your questions and think about your preferences well before labour begins. Be sure your partner, if you have one, is also aware of your wishes and is prepared to speak on your behalf if the need arises.