Surveys

We are excited to announce the launch of our 2014: What Matters to YOU survey, which will run for the next few months evaluating women’s experiences and choices of birth in Ireland. The survey is online, self selecting, and open for women who have given birth IN IRELAND within the past FIVE YEARS. The survey is 100 questions long with a combination of multiple choice and comment boxes. It will take approximately 30 minutes to complete. We greatly appreciate your participation in this survey – please share it far and wide to get the best representation of YOUR views possible. Thank You!

To take the survey, click here

In 2011, AIMS Ireland conducted an online survey to evaluate women’s interest water birth in Ireland. The results of the survey is available here:

AIMSI Waterbirth Survey 2011

In July 2009, AIMSI launched an online survey asking women for feedback on their experience of care as users of maternity services. The survey closed on December 31st 2009 and a total of 367 respondents completed the survey, all of whom were self-selecting and anonymous. The survey was accessed via the AIMS Ireland website (www.aimsireland.com) and also through a number of parenting website forums. The full report is available here:

AIMSI What Matters to You 2010

AIMS Ireland is regularly contacted by many women regarding services and care around the time of a pregnancy loss. We appreciate that this is a sensitive and emotive topic. AIMS Ireland would like to extend our most sincere condolences on your loss. In 2009, AIMS Ireland published the results of our Survey on Pregnancy Loss. You can read the final report here:

AIMS Report on Pregnancy Loss and Maternity Services

If you would like to discuss your experiences or if you need any further support relating to your loss, please contact AIMSI Support and Information at support@aimsireland.com 

‘Rooming in’ is the practice whereby a mother stays with her newborn baby throughout the period of her postnatal hospital stay. A cot is placed beside the mother’s bed so that baby can be continually cared for by her mother. “Rooming in”, as it was originally conceived, has proved to hold psychological and practical benefits to both mother and baby. In the right environment, it promotes greater bonding and early maternal nurturing, giving the mother the opportunity to learn and develop confidence in feeding and caring for her new baby. Critically, this practice is considered only safe and successful when the mother had unlimited availability of support from midwives/nurses to assist with caring for her baby. Today, most of our maternity hospitals, have a compulsory “rooming in “ policy.

There is growing evidence that mothers who have recently given birth are not always getting the necessary and critical help they need to adequately care for their babies. Of particular concern are those mothers who have had difficult births, often involving surgery, and others with varying postnatal complications. AIMS Ireland fully support the original concept of ‘rooming in’ but we want to gauge the actual experience of mothers in our maternity hospitals. 

In 2008, AIMS Ireland conducted a “Rooming In” survey. The survey received a large response, where 266 women voluntarily submitted their observations. All respondents were self selecting and anonymous. You can read the results here:

AIMSI Rooming In Survey 2008

In autumn of 2007 AIMS Ireland ran an online survey on the topic of “Availability of Information and Consent”. It was open to any one who wished to fill it in. Respondents who completed the survey were anonymous. It was voluntarily completed by 161 women. You can read the results here:

AIMSI Availability of Information and Consent 2008 

In March 2007, AIMS Ireland conducted its first survey evaluating women’s experiences of maternity services in Ireland. The aim of the survey was to help us gain a better understanding of what is most important to women with regard to their care during and after pregnancy and understand the improvements most women would like to see. This particular survey was aimed at women who had a baby in Ireland in the previous 5 years.

This survey was closed after 326 women responded. The survey was well balanced between the types of service women chose. 39.3% of respondents chose Public care, 21.2% Semi-Private care and 39.6% Private care. Below is a summary of what these results have told us. The main thing that stands out in the survey results is that during pregnancy, the majority of women were happy with the levels of care and information they received with 44.8% indicating ‘Excellent’ care and 39.3% indicating ‘Good’ care. However, the women became increasingly unhappy as they moved to labour, birth and post natal care. The most negative feedback we received was in relation to post-natal care, support and information. You can read the full results here:

AIMS Ireland What Matters To You 2007