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.

This is the third of three articles describing the work of the Birth Place Choices (BPC) Project, a Department of Health funded project 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 which 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. This article describes the evaluation process carried out during phase two of the BPC Project, as well as the key successes of the BPC Project and the barriers which limited its effectiveness.

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. This article describes the educational, marketing and change management initiatives that were carried out as part of phase two of the BPC Project. These included a marketing campaign for local Midwifery-Led Units, the provision of a maternity service user leaflet on local birthplace choices, and the development of a multi-professional guideline on place of birth. Midwife practice educators were employed to help disseminate the leaflet and guideline as well as implement educational initiatives for local midwives on and around informed choice and place of birth.