Social and Physical Features in Childbirth Environments

Abstract

A survey of recent childbirth literature indicates that few researchers have examined both the social and physical features of childbirth environments. In recent years, planners and administrators of obstetrics units have taken great pains to "humanize" birth environments. This includes changes both in the physical and social environments. What became evident from site visits to several facilities is that there is great variation in the ways in which facilites have become more homelike. We assumed that the more homelike the environment, the more positive the birth experience.