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The Birth Place Choices (BPC) Project was carried out between May 2003 and May 2005 as a collaboration between Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust and Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust. The BPC Project had three aims: 1. To identify factors that influence women's decisions about where to give birth 2. To determine whether the introduction of specially designed information and educational initiatives increase women's knowledge of choices for place of birth 3. To determine whether implementation of these initiatives was associated with an increase in the number of women choosing to give birth outside main consultant-led maternity units. Phase one of the BPC Project, described here, addressed the first aim. This is the first of three articles describing the work of the BPC Project. Following a literature review and an analysis of locally collected routine statistics relating to birthplace, a cross-sectional survey of local women and focus groups involving local women and midwives were carried out. The findings revealed that, compared to other health professionals, midwives had the greatest influence on maternity service users with regard to their birth place choices, yet were perhaps not using their influence effectively to ensure local women were aware of all their birthplace options, including midwifery-led units and home birth.

Using a CHW-led intervention, women at high risk for developing cervical cancer were identified and navigated to preventive care. Therefore, pairing CHWs with HPV self-sampling is a promising strategy to combat cervical cancer in rural Haiti and similar settings.