On pages 3-4 of that paper, it lists reason why women feel that birth environment is important. Write of list of these reasons and submit them below. Creating a

Creating a Better
Birth Environment

Women’s views about the design and
facilities in maternity units: a national survey

Mary Newburn and Debbie Singh

The National Childbirth Trust offers information and support in pregnancy, childbirth and early
parenthood. We aim to give every parent the chance to make informed choices and to make sure
that our services, activities and membership are available to everyone. Information about
membership and services is available on 0870 444 8707; www.nctpregnancyandbabycare.com;
email: [email protected]

For a full list of publications, or to order additional copies of this toolkit,
contact NCT Sales, 239 Shawbridge St, Glasgow G43 1QN. Telephone 0870 112
1120. www.nctms.co.uk.

© The National Childbirth Trust 2003
Alexandra House, Oldham Terrace

London W3 6NH

Acknowledgements

The NCT would like to thank all those who contributed to this survey, especially
readers of New Generation and Practical Parenting magazines and visitors to the
NCT website who completed questionnaires.

We are grateful to the women and families who let us use their photographs for
educational purposes, including Megan Oxberry. The photographs on page 16 are
reproduced with the permission of Michel Odent and first appeared in Odent, M.
Birth Reborn. New York: Pantheon; 1984. We also thank Jane Walker and Jackie
Moulla (Albany Midwifery Practice) for helping us find images of women in labour
and photographer Marcia May for the use of her pictures. We would also like to
thank Belinda Phipps, CEO, who initiated the project.

We are very grateful to Costain Ltd, who contributed funds towards producing the
Audit Toolkit.

Executive Summary

The National Childbirth Trust is concerned that opportunities for women to have the type of birth
they want are diminishing. Many factors impact on women’s birth experience, but the physical
environment has received limited attention. We conducted a magazine and online survey with
nearly 2000 new mothers in England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland to assess whether
the birth environment makes a difference.

Our survey found that:

• Nine out of ten women felt that the physical surroundings can affect how easy or
difficult it is to give birth.

• Many women had limited access to facilities that they felt were highly important during
labour.

• Most women said that having a clean room with en suite facilities, being able to walk
around, and having comfortable furniture for themselves and companions was highly
important. Women also wanted to be able to control the heating and lighting and to control
who came into their room