Objective: to describe and compare women's choices and experiences of maternity care before and after
the opening of the Barkantine Birth Centre, a new freestanding midwifery unit in an inner city area.
Design: telephone surveys undertaken in late pregnancy and about six weeks after birth in two separate
time periods, Phase 1 before the birth centre opened and Phase 2 after it had opened.
Setting: Tower Hamlets, a deprived inner city borough in east London, England, 2007–2010.
Participants: 620 women who were resident in Tower Hamlets and who satisfied the Barts and the
London NHS Trust's eligibility criteria for using the birth centre. Of these, 259 women were recruited to
Phase 1 and 361 to Phase 2