Healthcare professionals’ assertions and women’s responses during labour: A conversation analytic study of data from One born every minute

Highlights • HCPs initiate decisions in ways that vary optionality afforded to labouring women. • Decisions can be asserted through turn-designs such as ‘we’re going/need to…’. • Assertions are used in contexts of risk (e.g. emergency birth) and routine (e.g. fetal monitoring). • Labouring women tend to acquiesce to assertions, but they can and do resist. • There is a need for more research on situated communication in labour wards.