Hans van den Heuvel

8 The women in telemonitoring enjoyed being at home. They expressed being at home was more peaceful and calm then being admitted at the hospital. Even though these women were not admitted in a hospital, they were very well aware that their pregnancy was complicated. [TM03] “Because I had to stop working during the 30th week of my pregnancy, as I had to monitor myself every morning, I felt like a high-risk patient.” Only 2 out of 11 women from this group expressed anxious episodes at home. In these two subjects, anxiety was related to the realization of being alone when trying to do the correct monitoring or the need to come to the hospital for further evaluation. This uncertainty sometimes caused concern about what was going to happen next. [TM07] “Yes, sometimes I would have preferred to have a doctor nearby, for example if I could not find the fetal heart rate with the monitor or when I did not feel the baby move for quite a while.” [TM16] “I enjoyed being at home; it was a lot better than being in the hospital (…) I had to return to the hospital multiple times because of my blood pressure or a questionable CTG. Each time this happened, I had to wait and see if I could go back home. This made me feel like a high risk patient, although much less then when I was admitted to the hospital.” 3) Privacy In contrast to the hospital based participants, none of the women in the telemonitoring group reported issues regarding privacy. 4) Impact on partner and/or family Being at home resulted in less travel time for partners or family for hospital visits, which had its positive effects on family life. Some women in the telemonitoring group had help at home: family would help out with errands, house cleaning or taking care of other children. One woman [TM2] pointed out that, having a toddler around, resting at home was not always easy. [TM1] “Daily life just continued when I was at home, for both me and my family... In the morning, I sent the CTG, and I rested a little more than I would normally do, because of my blood pressure.“ [TM2] “Home monitoring was much more relaxed to me, compared to my first pregnancy when I was admitted in my 29th week. Now I could stay with my little son, very important for both his comfort and mine.” USER EXPERIENCES OF HOME-BASED TELEMONITORING IN PREGNANCY 135