ABSTRACT
The Birth Centre underwent a rapid succession of changes in its short life, which took it ever further from the model proposed in the feasibility study and accepted by the commissioning health authority (Shallow, 2003). Each intervention exacerbated staffing problems and led to a reduced service for women. No strategic move was taken to reconstruct that service or retain its midwives, which begs the question of whether there was ever more than a short-term approach to the Birth Centre. Many of the participants in this study voiced concerns that there never was any intention within the trust to allow the Birth Centre to work or to be successful:
I just instinctively knew that this project wasn’t going to work because there was no will for it to work and the writing was on the wall. The way they wanted to harness the Birth Centre Manager in the very first instance, knowing that she wouldn’t have any influence … I wanted to be wrong. (External 3)
I think the way the Birth Centre had been set up, it was set up to fail because we were put midwife against midwife. (Midwife 6)
