Ascertaining women's choice of title during pregnancy and childbirth

Abstract

We set out to determine how women in pregnancy would like to be addressed and also to ascertain their preferred choice of title during pregnancy. A questionnaire was administered to 925 women attending the antenatal clinics at the Unified Maternity Hospitals, the private rooms of the consultants of these hospitals and the private rooms of the consultants of the Bons Secour Hospital. Midwifery and medical staff (183 in total) were also invited to respond to a similar questionnaire. The response rate was 71.2% from the survey of women. The vast majority (82.1%) preferred to be addressed by their first name. Only 1.7% expressed a preference for a formal mode of address and the remainder (16.1%) did not mind. The women were in favour of being called ‘patient’ (32.8%), followed closely by ‘mother’ (28.9%) and then ‘lady’ (12.1%) as their first choice. Women wishing to be called ‘patient’ for first choice did not significantly differ from the remainder of the study group in age and gestation but were significantly more likely to have a lower number of previous pregnancies and less children (P < 0.05). First choice of title was not significantly influenced by category of patient (public vs. private). The staff survey yielded a response rate of 73.8%. The majority (83.5%) of health professionals preferred to address women by their first name, 6% preferred to address them more formally and 10.5% did not mind. ‘Mother’ (29.2%) was the most popular first choice, followed by ‘lady’ (22.3%), ‘woman’ (16.9%) and then ‘patient’ (13.8%). Medical staff (doctors) were significantly more likely to choose ‘patient’ (OR 26.5, 95% CI 7.8, 89.7; P < 0.001) when compared to midwives.