Stakeholder interviews

The interview sample will be refined based on each case but is likely to include as a minimum:

• clinical director and chief nurse
• clinical lead obstetrics
• clinical neonatology lead
• head of midwifery
• consultant midwife
• supervisors of midwives
• service commissioners
• Maternity Services Liaison Committee members, including lay members
• local consumer representatives
• key managers or personnel involved with transfer services and risk management.

Questions and topics will include:

• service configuration, including consultations, service reconfigurations or developments and reasons for these
• details of service configuration and organisation, including workforce arrangements, skill mix, models of care and escalation/transfer services and protocols
• any previous or current plans for change or development and reasons for these.

Interviews with professionals

Topics and questions will include discussion on the following:

• experiences of working on, or in, relation to the AMU (using photos taken of the space as prompts for discussion)
• service organisation, including workforce arrangements, skill mix, models of care and escalation/transfer services and protocols
• facilitators and barriers to choice of place of birth in different settings for low-risk women.
• facilitators and barriers for professionals working in different birth settings
• training provision and needs for staff working in different birth settings
• management and staff support and development arrangements
• any local, contextual or organisational factors impacting on quality of care and staff or user satisfaction.

Interviews with women and their partners

Topics and questions will include the discussion of the following:

• Women’s pathways through care, including choices offered and made and any change of plans or referrals.
• (How) did they choose to give birth in the AMU?
• Women’s experience of maternity care, with particular focus on the AMU birth setting.
• Experiences of birth complications and escalation or transfer of care.
• Experiences of any transfers of care or setting for organisational reasons, or personal choice.
• Wishes for future births.