Table 3 Study characteristics and quality ratings for all included studies
Study Code & Authors | Date | Country | Resource | No of Participants | Parity | Type of pain relief | Primary aim/focus | Design | Qualitative data collection method | Quality Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Yoshioka, Yeo & Fetters, 2012 [29] | 2012 | USA | High | 17 women | Primips & multips | Epidural | To understand importance of cultural barriers in use of epidurals for Japanese women living in USA | Mixed methods (survey/interview) | Interviews | C |
Morris & Schulman, 2014 [35] | 2014 | USA | High | 83 women | Primips & multips | Epidural | To explore organisational processes that may lead to racial disparity in epidural use and regional anaesthesia failure in labour and birth | Qualitative (unspecified) | Interviews | C+ |
Larkin, Begley & Devane, 2017 [18] | 2017 | Republic of Ireland | High | 531 completed DCE - 291 provided qualitative comments | Not reported | Epidural and Opioids | Women’s preferences during childbirth/labour | Discrete choice experiment | Open ended survey questions | C+ |
Jepsen & Keller, 2014 [32] | 2014 | Denmark | High | 9 women and 8 midwives | Primips | Epidural | How women experience being in labour with epidural analgesia and what kind of midwifery care do they consequently need | Phenomenology | Field observations and interviews | B+ |
Jantjes, Strumpher & Kotze, 2007 [37] | 2007 | South Africa | Upper Middle | 9 women | Primips | Opioids | To explore/describe the childbirth experience of first-time mothers who received opioids during the first stage of labour | Qualitative (uses Kotze’s Nursing Accompaniment Theory) | Interviews | C+ |
Doering, Patterson & Griffiths, 2014 [34] | 2014 | New Zealand | High | 13 women | Primips & multips | Epidural | To explore how Japanese women in New Zealand respond to the use of pharmacological pain relief in labour | Qualitative (unspecified) | Interviews/focus group | B+ |
Hidaka & Callister, 2012 [36] | 2012 | USA | High | 9 women | Primips | Epidural | To understand the birth experiences of women using epidural analgesia for pain management | Qualitative (unspecified) | Interviews | B+ |
Angle, Landy, Charles, Yee, Watson, Kung, Kronberg, Halpern, Lam, Ming & Streiner, 2010 [33] | 2010 | Canada | High | 28 women | Primips & multips | Epidural | To explore women’s experiences and perspectives of neuraxial analgesia for tool development | Qualitative (unspecified) | Interviews/focus groups | B+ |
Lally, Thomson, MacPhail & Exley, 2014 [31] | 2014 | UK | High | 23 women | Primips & multips | Epidural | To explore how women can be better supported in preparing for and making decisions during pregnancy and labour regarding pain management | Qualitative (unspecified) | Interviews | B- |
Dillaway & Brubaker, 2006 [28] | 2006 | USA | High | 60 women | Not reported | Epidural | To analyse findings from two separate qualitative studies using an intersectionality framework to compare experiences of two different samples of birthing women (White, middle to upper class and African American teenagers) | Qualitative using intersectionality framework | Interviews | B |
Attanasio, Kozhimannil, Jou, McPherson & Camann, 2015 [40] | 2015 | USA | High | 1573 women surveyed (914 women provided comments in relation to opioid use) | Primips & multips | Epidural | To explore patient experience of neuraxial analgesia among a national sample of US mothers | Survey | Open ended survey questions | B- |
Fleet, Jones & Belan, 2017 [41] | 2017 | Australia | High | 112 women | Primips & multips | Opioids | RCT to compare the efficacy of fentanyl administered via different routes, with thestandard practice of intramuscular (IM) pethidine use for women in labour. | RCT study | Open ended survey questions | B- |
Goldberg & Shorten, 2014 [30] | 2014 | USA | High | 14 women, 13 labour nurses and 7 obstetricians/gynaecologists | Primips | Epidural | To explore differences between patient and provider perceptions of decision-making regarding epidural analgesia use during labor and birth | Survey | Open ended survey questions | B- |
Heinze & Sleigh, 2003 [27] | 2003 | USA | High | 46 women | Primips & multips | Epidural | To explore differences between women choosing to labour without medication and those choosing to labour with an epidural | Survey | Open ended survey questions | C |
Levett, Smith, Bensoussan & Dahlen, 2016 [24] | 2016 | Australia | High | 13 women, 7 partners and 12 midwives | Primips | Complementary medicine antenatal education course (including relaxation techniques and massage) | To gain insights into the experiences of women, partners and midwives who participated in the intervention | RCT study (interviews with intervention arm only) | Interviews/focus groups | B+ |
Miquelutti, Cecatti & Makuch, 2013 [23] | 2013 | Brazil | Upper-Middle | 21 women (11 in intervention arm) | Primips | Systematized antenatal programme (including relaxation and massage techniques) | To describe the experience of labour and delivery as reported by women who participated and women who did not participate in an antenatal program of preparation. | RCT study (interviews with women who did/did not access the intervention) | Interviews | B+ |
Browning, 2000 [42] | 2000 | Canada | High | 11 women | Primips | Music therapy (relaxation) | To explore experiences of the music group intervention | Qualitative (unspecified) | Interviews | C- |
Kimber, 1998 [45] | 1998 | UK | High | 50 women and partners | Primips & multips | Massage | To undertake an evaluation of the therapist’s massage service | Evaluation survey | Open ended survey questions | C- |
Andren & Lundgren, 2005 [25] | 2005 | Sweden | High | 10 women | Primips | Massage | To describe women’s experiences of tactile massage during the latent phase of labour | Phenomenology - | Interviews | A- |
Fisher, Hauck, Bayes & Byrne, 2012 [39] | 2012 | Australia | High | 12 mothers & 7 birth partners | Primips | Mindfulness intervention (relaxation) | To explore participant experiences of the mindfulness intervention | Feasibility study | Focus groups | B+ |
Klimi et al., 2011 [26] | 2011 | Turkey | Upper Middle | 3 women | Primips | Music therapy (relaxation) | To explore how the music and other sounds can affect the experience of childbirth. | Qualitative (unspecified) | Interviews | C+ |
Tabarro, de Campos, Galli, Novo & Pereira, 2010 [43] | 2010 | Brazil | Upper Middle | 12 women | Primips & multips | Music therapy (relaxation) | To verify and describe the effects of individually selected songs during the labour. | Qualitative (unspecified) | Interviews | C+ |
Duncan & Bardacke, 2010, [38] | 2010 | USA | High | 27 women | Primips & multips | Mindfulness intervention (relaxation) | to describe the changes in the dimensions of the stress and coping process observed in pregnant women participating in the intervention with their partners during their third trimester of pregnancy. | Mixed-method observational pilot study | Interviews | B+ |
Pierce, 2001 [44] | 2001 | USA | High | 76% return rate - but no denominator provided | No details | Toning (relaxation) | To undertake an evaluation of the therapist’s music/toning service | Evaluation survey | Open ended survey questions | C- |