The Medicalization of Pregnancy and Childbirth in Contemporary Turkey: The Effect of Risk Discourses for Turkish Women’s Experiences

BACKGROUND: Caregivers need to better understand women’s experiences of support during childbirth because research suggests that social support positively influences childbirth.AIM: This study describes women’s experiences of support given by caregivers during pregnancy and childbirth.METHOD: The study design was inspired by grounded theory. Seven interviews of women were analyzed with an open coding, and different time-related categories related to the childbirth process emerged. The categories were marked by fear and a negative birth experience, being guided on own terms, feel supported, and transformation into courage to give birth. The analysis continued with a selective coding, reflecting the process of mistrust to trust in caregivers.FINDINGS: The mistrust in caregivers began with feelings of fear of birth and a negative birth experience. Through being guided on own terms and feeling supported by the caregivers, a trusting relationship could be established. If the trusting relationship continued during labor, then a woman could transform the fear of birth into the courage to give birth.CONCLUSIONS: Women’s experience of support can be seen as a product of earlier experiences from interactions with caregivers. Therefore, caregivers must be sensitive to the potential power and far-reaching consequences their actions can have.

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Soviet and American Childbearing Experiences and Attitudes: A Comparison

Slavic Review ◽

10.2307/2497438 ◽

1983 ◽

Vol 42 (1) ◽

pp. 1-13 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jean Ispa

Keyword(s):

Soviet Union ◽

The West ◽

Obstetrical Care ◽

Women’S Experiences ◽

Pregnancy And Childbirth ◽

Uterine Contractions ◽

Women's Experiences ◽

The Soviet Union ◽

Women’S Perceptions ◽

Pregnancy And Delivery

In 1951, and again in 1955, Dr. Fernand Lamaze, a French obstetrician, traveled to the Soviet Union to study “psychoprophylaxis,” a method designed by Soviet psychologists, obstetricians, and neurologists to help women overcome pain and fear during childbirth. The method, which was rooted in the medical use of hypnosis and suggestion to alleviate pain, involved training women to take their minds off uterine contractions by concentrating instead on other bodily functions, such as breathing. Lamaze refined the method and brought it to the West.Lamaze's account of his indebtedness to Soviet scientists suggests that it may be useful to learn more about Soviet women's experiences during pregnancy and childbirth. Perusal of the literature, however, indicates that, while general descriptions in English of Soviet obstetrical care are available, very little is known about Soviet women's perceptions of and attitudes toward pregnancy and delivery.

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Women’s Lived Experience of Pregnancy and Child Birth: Narratives from Pakistan

The Qualitative Report ◽

10.46743/2160-3715/2018.3162 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Rabia Ali ◽

Ume Habiba ◽

Hazir Ullah

Keyword(s):

Lived Experience ◽

Working Women ◽

Structured Interview ◽

Work Family Conflict ◽

Women’S Experiences ◽

Pregnancy And Childbirth ◽

Women's Experiences ◽

Interview Guide ◽

Intimate Relations ◽

Work Family

In Pakistan there are unique socio-cultural factors that contribute to women’s experiences of pregnancy and childbirth. This study explores Pakistani women’s experiences of pregnancy and childbirth an area that remains under researched in the country. Qualitative research was employed for data collection by using an un-structured interview guide. The informants included twelve women who had recently been through the childbirth process for the first and second time. The collected data reveals that women were unaware of the use of multi vitamins during pregnancy. They delayed physical check-ups with a gynaecologist. Women encountered challenges at work during pregnancy and encountered work family conflict after childbirth. Support from intimate relations including husbands and in-laws were reported by the respondents. Attitude of colleagues at work was not always positive during pregnancy. The working women reported being overburdened at work. It is suggested that women friendly policies are required for working women giving birth. Facilities including rest rooms, medical centres need to be provided to the women at work. Women need to be educated about the importance of health care during pregnancy.

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Women’s Experiences With Maternity Care and Medical Discourse In Florence, Italy

10.25172/td/14475347 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Michaela Wallerstedt ◽

Keyword(s):

Cultural History ◽

Maternity Care ◽

Healthcare Professionals ◽

Medical Discourse ◽

The South ◽

Regional Variability ◽

Quality Healthcare ◽

Women’S Experiences ◽

Pregnancy And Childbirth ◽

Women's Experiences

This dissertation is based on ethnographic research in Florence, Italy. The primary focus of this research is based on a comparison of medical discourse from Italian State documents with women’s experiences during pregnancy and childbirth in Italy. Mirroring trends throughout the developed world, Italy has maintained high rates of cesarean sections since the turn of the century. Italy’s unique political and cultural history has made Tuscany one of the best regions for maternity care within a country with significant regional variability. This dissertation looks at historical and current cultural trends to understand the ways in which women experience high-quality maternity care in Florence. This dissertation interrogates women’s experiences during pregnancy and childbirth through the theoretical lenses of political philosophy, agency and practice theory, and the medicalization of reproduction. This dissertation provides new avenues through which to draw connections between these three social theories. Medical discourse in the State documents demonstrates the ways in which women’s subjectivities and experiences are erased in an effort create a population upon which it is (theoretically) easier to enact interventions. Discourse ignores women’s agency in favor of implying that doctors and healthcare professionals are far more important actors in pregnancy and childbirth. But Italian women assert their own agency against medicalized birth through their reproductive socialities. By making connections with other mothers and midwives, women find support beyond medicalized models of maternity care. Local hospitals and healthcare clinics become sites that foster reproductive sociality. Women seek out care from healthcare professionals, primarily midwives, not due to their medical competence but due to their ability to create relationships with their patients. Midwives are part of what makes hospitals the ideal place for birth; a safe haven from the potential risk of birth. This idealization of birth, however, often gives way to less than desired care, demonstrating the fractures and inconsistencies in the way midwifery-based care is perceived. These fractures and inconsistencies are also seen in how women conceive of healthcare throughout the country. Women themselves simultaneously value and devalue their own socialities. Women’s discussion of the Italian healthcare system demonstrates how deep-seated ideologies of rationalist medical behaviors and stereotypes about the South. Women afford flexibility in departing from ideal modes of birth in their own decisions, but do not afford women the same flexibility in the South. Medicalized rhetoric seeps into deep seated beliefs about the South, demonstrating that women’s own positive experiences are not always valued as a means to achieving quality healthcare. Through analyzing the connection medical discourse and women’s reproductive sociality, I demonstrate the tenuousness with which experience is valued.

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Women's Experiences of Subsequent Pregnancy and Childbirth Following Delivery of a Child with Down's Syndrome

Journal of Japan Academy of Nursing Science ◽

10.5630/jans1981.23.1_46 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 23 (1) ◽

pp. 46-56 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Keiko Tsuji

Keyword(s):

Down's Syndrome ◽

Down’S Syndrome ◽

Subsequent Pregnancy ◽

Women’S Experiences ◽

Pregnancy And Childbirth ◽

Women's Experiences

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Measuring women's experiences of childbirth using the Birth Satisfaction Scale-Revised (BSS-R)

British Journal of Midwifery ◽

10.12968/bjom.2020.28.5.306 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 28 (5) ◽

pp. 306-312

Author(s):

Caroline J Hollins Martin ◽

Lucia Jimenez Martinez ◽

Colin R Martin

Keyword(s):

Self Report ◽

Reliable Measure ◽

Satisfaction Scale ◽

Women’S Experiences ◽

Pregnancy And Childbirth ◽

Childbirth Experience ◽

Women's Experiences ◽

Birth Satisfaction ◽

Women’S Perceptions ◽

Standard Set

Birth satisfaction relates to women's perceptions of their childbirth experience, with importance placed on the midwife to improve standards of the intranatal care provided. With evaluating intranatal care in mind, this paper aims to educate midwives about one particular method of measuring women's experiences of labour, which involves using the valid and reliable Birth Satisfaction Scale-Revised (BSS-R). The BSS-R is a 10-item self-report valid and reliable measure, which is recommended by the International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement (ICHOM) as the ‘method of choice’ for evaluating women's ‘birth experience’. Since the ICHOM began recommending the BSS-R as part of its pregnancy and childbirth standard set, the scale (at time of print) has been used in 39 countries and 134 sites around the world.

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