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Background: Part of the caseload of an Advanced Midwife Practitioner (AMP) service in a Northwest of Ireland maternity unit includes vaginal birth after caesarean section (VBAC) women. Despite evidence about VBAC being a safe option for women, the numbers attempting a VBAC remain small. This research was undertaken to give an insight into how VBAC eligible women opt for an elective repeat CS (ERCS) or VBAC birth., Methods: Forty-four postnatal women with one previous CS who birthed between August 2021 and March 2022 were invited to participate in a qualitative study. Thirteen semi-structured interviews were undertaken in 2022. Thematic Analysis guided the analysis of the data and the findings are framed using the domains of the Socio-Ecological Model., Findings: Decision making in relation to ERCS and VBAC is complex. Women want accurate VBAC information and time for discussions. Decisions are influenced by the woman's own confidence to birth naturally, family size, rite of passage to motherhood, control, previous birth experience, postnatal recovery and friends and family., Discussion: Previous experience can influence but not predict the next mode of birth. However, there is no one script that healthcare professionals (HCP) can use for this decision making given the various factors that influence this. To meet women's individual needs, HCPs should discuss VBAC suitability postnatally, offer VBAC antenatal clinics and specific VBAC classes., Conclusion: Discussions about suitability for VBAC should occur following the primary CS. Continuity of care (COC), time for discussions and VBAC supportive HCP should be an option for all of this cohort., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known personal relationships or any known competing financial interests that could appear to have influenced this qualitative research paper. A local Research and Education Foundation seed grant of €615 was used to pay for the interviews to be transcribed. No other funding or outside support was used to undertake this study., (Copyright © 2023 Australian College of Midwives. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To conduct a behavioral investigation, using the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF), to identify barriers and enablers to maternity healthcare professionals (HCP) inviting all eligible women to participate in a maternity care trial., Study Design and Setting: We invited HCP recruiters from maternity care trials in high priority research areas including, diabetes, preeclampsia and breastfeeding, from across Ireland and the UK, to take part in a semi-structured interview. Data collection was informed by the TDF, followed by inductive thematic analysis and deductive mapping to the TDF., Results: Twenty-two recruiters including midwives, nurses, allied health professionals and doctors were interviewed online or by telephone phone. Thematic analysis generated four global themes; Availability and accessibility of resources, Navigating the recruitment pathway, Prioritising clinical responsibilities over research responsibilities and The influence of colleagues and peers. Themes were mapped to the TDF, identifying 13 domains relevant to the behaviour., Conclusion: This paper identifies the factors enabling or inhibiting maternity HCP recruiters to invite all eligible women to participate in a maternity care trial. The findings provide guidance for researchers designing trials for this population and the essential first step in developing a recruiter-focused behaviour change intervention to support recruitment to trials in maternity care., (Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)