Once a month we are inviting all researchers to meet via ZOOM to discuss a complex ethics & integrity case. Our purpose is to see ethical practice as a living and vibrant part of our work at Victoria University. While we do not underestimate the importance of formal ethical review, it is well known that issues arise in practice that do not necessarily fit the templates of such review, and that researchers often have to make fast decisions about how to move forward.

This month's case:

It is reported that 45% of Australian women experience such symptoms arising from traumatic birth experiences (Alcorn, O’Donovan et.al., 2016). Contributing factors include negative healthcare experiences for women related to poor communication and lack of consent, resulting in uninformed and unsupported decision-making during childbirth (Watson, White, et. al., 2021). Such trauma has a significant impact on women’s experiences of motherhood, mental health and stress disorders including the development of PTSD, postnatal depression and future fertility issues including tokophobia with subsequent pregnancies and childbirth experiences (Martinez, Almagro, Alcaron et. al., 2019; Ayers, Radoch & Balouch, 2015). Place of birth is integral to considering the distress women experience with 97% of women in Australia birthing their babies in hospital in 2021 (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2023), where women receive their maternity care. Women’s levels of distress and trauma are further influenced by increasing rates of intervention within the hospital setting with around 34% of women experiencing induction of labour and up to 50% of women having birth intervention (38% caesarean birth) (AIHW, 2023).

This study aims to investigate women’s and health professionals’ experiences of information giving and informed consent during maternity care to inform a responsive need’s analysis to enhance women’s health and childbearing maternity care experiences in the longer-term. Our hypothesis is that current healthcare practices during pregnancy and birth do not sit easily with the notion of informed consent, which is a critical underpinning of health care. When it comes to informed consent, pregnancy is complicated tricky terrain because there are two patients, one of whose interests is represented by the other, at least in the first instance. When the interests of both patients are the same, the issues are easily resolved. However, when the interests conflict, there is no direct corollary that can be drawn upon. We would argue that a thorough re-imaging of informed consent during pregnancy and birth needs to be undertake and we wish to interview women and healthcare professionals to gauge current understandings of, and practices of, informed consent.

Register for Ethics & Integrity Case of the Month HERE on VU Develop.

For more information about this session please email Researcher.Development@vu.edu.au