Childbirth expectations: a qualitative analysis.

Maternal childbirth expectations play an important role in determining a woman's response to her childbirth experience. As part of the initial phase in the development of a research tool to investigate maternal childbirth expectations, in-depth interviews were conducted with a sample of eleven urban Canadian women in their third trimester of pregnancy. Content analysis of interview data indicated that the women had developed detailed expectations of the childbirth experience as well as for the roles of support persons and health care personnel. Exploration of women's childbirth expectations is discussed as an important component of childbirth education.