Exploring Women’s Reasons for Choosing Home Birth with the Help of Their Untrained Family Members: A Qualitative Research

BACKGROUND: Home births with the help of untrained family members continue to be women’s preference in Indonesia. However, the practice has received very little attention. The purpose of this study was to explore women’s reasons for choosing home births with the help of their untrained family members. METHODS: This study used an exploratory-descriptive qualitative research approach and was conducted from April 2020 to March 2021 in Riau Province, Indonesia. A total of 22 respondents determined by data saturation was recruited using purposive and snowball samplings. The respondents consisted of 12 women who had at least one planned home birth with the help of their untrained family members, and 10 untrained relatives who had an experience in intentionally assisting their family member’s home birth. Data were collected through semi-structured telephone interviews. Nvivo version 11 software was used for data analysis using the Graneheim and Lundman’s content analysis. RESULTS: 13 categories and 4 themes emerged. The themes were living with fallacious beliefs in unassisted home childbirths, feeling of socially alienated from the surrounding communities, dealing with limited access to healthcare services, and escaping from childbirth-related stressors. CONCLUSION: Home birth with the help of untrained family members takes place because of not only limited access to healthcare services, but also women’s personal beliefs, values, and needs. Designing culturally sensitive health education, ensuring culturally competent healthcare workers and services, overcoming healthcare access barriers, and improving the community’s pregnancy and childbirth literacies are fundamental in reducing unassisted home births and promoting facility childbirths.