Women's experience of transfer from community-based to consultant-based maternity care.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate women's experience of transfer from community-based to consultant obstetric care.
DESIGN: Semi-structured interviews three to eight weeks postnatally, which were taped, transcribed and analysed according to grounded theory.
SETTING: Community-based maternity service, Sheffield, England. PARTICIPANTS: Twelve women who had been transferred to consultant care in late pregnancy or labour. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Categories which described and explained women's experience and that could be validated by checking back against the interview data.
FINDINGS: There was a strong potential for disappointment with their labours, but this could be ameliorated by certain aspects of care, namely information and explanation, debriefing, and continuity of care.
CONCLUSION: Transfer is an inevitable consequence for a proportion of community-booked women but need not be a negative experience, with appropriate care.