This website has been created as a public service by Miranda Dodwell and Rod Gibson of BirthChoiceUK.
Mission Statement
BirthChoiceUK is a voluntary organisation which helps women choose their maternity care through information provided by way of its website www.BirthChoiceUK.com. It provides information and maternity statistics for each maternity unit in an accessible form for parents to help them know what questions to ask locally and to decide where to plan to have their baby. There are also summaries and analyses of maternity statistics for the four countries of the UK which are of use to policy makers, health professionals and maternity activists.
Further information
The website aims to increase parental choice over where to give birth. It includes:
As well as information for pregnant women and their families, the BirthChoiceUK website also features national maternity and birth statistics for all four countries of the UK, including analysis to show changing trends. Through our work we aim to help pregnant women understand what choices are available to them and to represent their interests to policy-makers and service providers. We also contribute to the improvement of maternity data collection so that women will have better information upon which to base their decisions.
BirthChoiceUK supports informed choice for parents and believes that the information contained in our website should be available to all women in early pregnancy to allow them to choose the type of maternity care that most suits their needs and wishes. The website does not favour one place of birth over any other, nor one type of maternity care over any other. Instead, it encourages visitors to ask questions of themselves and their health care providers to help them make choices which will result in the birth experience they wish for.
Representation
Since 2001, BirthChoiceUK has represented maternity services users’ interests on the following:
BirthChoiceUK works closely with other organisations representing the interests of maternity services users including NCT and the Association for Improvements in the Maternity Services (AIMS).
BirthChoiceUK liaises with the following providers of statistical information:
Miranda trained as a childbirth educator in South West London, teaching antenatal classes for the NCT and has a Diploma of Higher Education in Antenatal Teaching. She has a research background, with a Ph.D. in Genetics. Since 2001 she has given presentations, undertaken research, written articles and attended meetings about choice of place of birth and other maternity subjects. Related publications.
Rod is a freelance economist/statistician. He designed and implemented the website and built the databases that lie behind it. Since 2001 he has maintained the BirthChoiceUK website and undertaken research and statistical analysis of maternity data relating to choice of place of birth.