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Project Details
This project investigates whether the legal requirements for consent to treatment in labour and childbirth are met in practice.
Consent to medical treatment has two key components: information and voluntariness. Valid consent requires that a person is provided with all the information they need to make a decision and that the decision is truly voluntary, meaning free from coercion of any kind. Consent during childbirth is subject to the same requirements as any other medical treatment, yet consent to birth interventions is sometimes seriously inadequate. Poor consent practices can lead to bad birth experiences, which are correlated with poor outcomes including postpartum depression. In Ireland, part of the clinical context is the historical legal protection for the unborn and the repeal of the Eighth Amendment in 2018.
This Project seeks to investigate the divergence between the legal requirements for consent in birth and the reality of consent practices in Irish maternity services, including an investigation of how those practices were shaped by and should change in the absence of the Eighth Amendment. Our ultimate aim is to generate evidence that will be used to shape policy and improve consent practices.
The Project methodology consists of a mixed methods three-phase approach using a sequential explanatory design. Our empirical strand involves qualitative interviews with women and health care providers and a quantitative survey of women who gave birth in Ireland in recent years. We combine this with doctrinal and theoretical analysis of the legal and ethical requirements and for consent.