Table 1.

Literature search, inclusion and exclusion criteria

Search Criteria		Returns
CINAHL	In abstract: (Labour OR labour OR childbirth) AND pregnan* AND narrative AND choice AND control	41 articles
Pubmed	(Labour OR labour OR childbirth) AND pregnan* AND narrative AND choice AND control	55 articles
ProQuest	(Labour OR labour OR childbirth) AND pregnan* AND narrative	20 articles

A further source of information was to follow leads from the reference lists of all the above literature to ensure as few as possible pertinent sources of information were missed.

Papers were included for review if they entailed narrative or description reported first hand, related to issues of choice in childbirth, and grounded in experience of that process.

Papers were included if they were methodologically coherent. This judgement was made based on Cohen and Crabtree's quality criteria (18) for qualitative research. All papers included were adjudged to be ethical, important, clearly articulated and used appropriate, rigorous methods.

Papers were excluded if they did not contain primary qualitative data from original research, if they did not meet the quality criteria, or if they were reported in language other than English.