Childbirth: a Momentous Occasion Muslim Women's Childbirth Experiences

<p>This thesis explores the perception of three Muslim women’s experience of childbirth, in a setting surrounded by health professionals who largely have little understanding of their needs and experience of being in the world. The women’s stories reveal that giving birth in a cross-cultural setting is stressful. The women had to adjust to an environment which challenged their beliefs and values, in one case with no extended family or cultural support. This stress is long lasting as evidenced in the women’s stories. Various forms of narrative such as a letter, excerpts from conversations, and interviews, have been used in presenting this research, in order to illuminate Muslim women’s birthing experiences particularly to health colleagues in Aotearoa-New Zealand. Given the opportunity to tell their story, all the women highlighted both the positive and negative aspects of their birth experiences. Excerpts from the narratives of Khadija, Ayesha, and Amina, describe the reality of their experiences. The overarching theme in this thesis reveals the uniqueness of each woman’s story. This thesis identifies situations that heightened the vulnerability of the women. It concludes by identifying recommendations and reading material for nurses and midwives in education or practice to become informed, so that 20,000 Muslims in Aotearoa-New Zealand may receive an acceptable level of culturally safe practice.</p>

Childbirth: a Momentous Occasion Muslim Women's Childbirth Experiences

<p>This thesis explores the perception of three Muslim women’s experience of childbirth, in a setting surrounded by health professionals who largely have little understanding of their needs and experience of being in the world. The women’s stories reveal that giving birth in a cross-cultural setting is stressful. The women had to adjust to an environment which challenged their beliefs and values, in one case with no extended family or cultural support. This stress is long lasting as evidenced in the women’s stories. Various forms of narrative such as a letter, excerpts from conversations, and interviews, have been used in presenting this research, in order to illuminate Muslim women’s birthing experiences particularly to health colleagues in Aotearoa-New Zealand. Given the opportunity to tell their story, all the women highlighted both the positive and negative aspects of their birth experiences. Excerpts from the narratives of Khadija, Ayesha, and Amina, describe the reality of their experiences. The overarching theme in this thesis reveals the uniqueness of each woman’s story. This thesis identifies situations that heightened the vulnerability of the women. It concludes by identifying recommendations and reading material for nurses and midwives in education or practice to become informed, so that 20,000 Muslims in Aotearoa-New Zealand may receive an acceptable level of culturally safe practice.</p>

Honouring the Sacred in Childbirth: a Midwife's Stories of Women's Developing Sense of Self

<p><b>Thirty years of midwifery practice has shown me the beauty of birthing. After spending time working with a homebirth midwife I had an awakening which affected me deeply, both personally and professionally. I looked on birth in a different light and started recognising new possibilities. I learned new skills and understandings working in a variety of settings during a time of major change for New Zealand midwifery.</b></p> <p>This experience has led me to this study the aim of which was to explore the relationship between the woman and myself the midwife as I experienced it and understood it in practice. I use an auto/biographical method: reflecting on my own story and on both factual and fictionalised exemplars from my practice.</p> <p>My research led me to the following conclusions. As women prepare for and reflect on their births they often tell stories about themselves based on a mix of recent events interspersed with their ideas and hopes. Telling stories helps women learn about aspects of themselves that reconstruct their identity, leading to a greater integration of their sense of self. Woman-centred midwifery care takes on new meaning when midwives practice midwifery by engaging with women’s narratives.</p> <p>Each woman and her birthing reinforce the sacredness of childbirth. By combining an awareness of sacred possibilities with scientific understandings, midwives offer a bridge so that through childbirth experiences, women can enhance and reconstruct their inner lives. This study indicates that further research on the familiar but undeveloped aspects of ‘everydayness’ in midwifery practice is necessary. In particular, the emotional and spiritual aspects of midwifery deserve greater attention.</p>

Honouring the Sacred in Childbirth: a Midwife's Stories of Women's Developing Sense of Self

<p><b>Thirty years of midwifery practice has shown me the beauty of birthing. After spending time working with a homebirth midwife I had an awakening which affected me deeply, both personally and professionally. I looked on birth in a different light and started recognising new possibilities. I learned new skills and understandings working in a variety of settings during a time of major change for New Zealand midwifery.</b></p> <p>This experience has led me to this study the aim of which was to explore the relationship between the woman and myself the midwife as I experienced it and understood it in practice. I use an auto/biographical method: reflecting on my own story and on both factual and fictionalised exemplars from my practice.</p> <p>My research led me to the following conclusions. As women prepare for and reflect on their births they often tell stories about themselves based on a mix of recent events interspersed with their ideas and hopes. Telling stories helps women learn about aspects of themselves that reconstruct their identity, leading to a greater integration of their sense of self. Woman-centred midwifery care takes on new meaning when midwives practice midwifery by engaging with women’s narratives.</p> <p>Each woman and her birthing reinforce the sacredness of childbirth. By combining an awareness of sacred possibilities with scientific understandings, midwives offer a bridge so that through childbirth experiences, women can enhance and reconstruct their inner lives. This study indicates that further research on the familiar but undeveloped aspects of ‘everydayness’ in midwifery practice is necessary. In particular, the emotional and spiritual aspects of midwifery deserve greater attention.</p>

A Manifest against the Homogenisation of Childbirth Experiences: Preserving Subjectiveness in a Large Dataset of the «Babies Born Better» Survey

The Babies Born Better international project aimed at surveying women’s experience in childbirth, privileging the qualitative description of this experience. It was translated into several languages and, in each country, there were different strategies for data analysis. However, analysing a qualitative dataset of this dimension, without completely transforming qualitative into quantitative data, poses practical challenges to researchers. Thus, in this article, we aim to explore the potential of using a qualitative data analysis software to avoid homogenising women’s experiences and preserve the subjectivity of responses in the analysis of open-ended questions of the B3 survey. We focused on the Portuguese version of the survey, reporting a thematic, computer assisted qualitative data analysis of 1348 responses. The software acted as a mediator of the researchers’ analysis and interpretation, beyond classical content analysis, without converting qualitative into quantitative data through plain word count. Exploring new possibilities of interpreting not only the meaning, but the relations between categories, may expand the scope of qualitative data analysis. However, we argue that the use of a software should not be overvalued, as such strategy should always remain as subsidiary to the researcher’s subjective interpretation of data.

Parenting Stress in the Early Years – A Survey of the Impact of Breastfeeding and Social Support for Women in Finland and the UK

BackgroundBeing a new parent can be both joyful and stressful. Parenting stress is associated with poorer health and well-being for parents and infant, and increased psychological distress.For new mothers, physical and hormonal changes, expectations of mothering and demands of a new baby may cause additional stress. Breastfeeding is promoted as optimal for maternal and infant health, but can have both positive and negative psychological impacts. Formal and informal social support can offset parenting and breastfeeding stress. Source, content and context of support for new parents are important considerations. This study compares two countries with different parenting and breastfeeding contexts, Finland (more supportive) and the UK (less supportive), investigating the role of breastfeeding stress, self-efficacy and social support as predictors of stress and role strain for new mothers..MethodsA cross-sectional online survey was completed by 1550 breastfeeding mothers of infants up to 2 years old, recruited via social media platforms in Finland and the UK. Predictors of parenting stress and strain, including demograpic factors, childbirth experiences, breastfeeding and social support were investigated. Results We found fewer differences between countries than expected, perhaps due to demographic and contextual differences. Women in Finland reported better childbirth experiences, more positive breastfeeding attitudes, and more self-efficacy than in the UK. Levels of parenting stress were similar in both countries. Women in the UK reported more parental role strain, but fewer breastfeeding stressors. Participants accessed more informal than formal supports, including their partner for parenting, and facebook groups and family for breastfeeding. Analysis suggested breastfeeding stress and social support had significant direct effects – respectively increasing and reducing parenting stress and role strain, but no moderating effects of social supportsuggesting support did not change the relationship between breastfeeding and parenting stress. ConclusionsResults have important implications for the provision of breastfeeding and parenting support for new mothers.Simple interventions to manage stress for mothers in the postnatal period could be beneficial and are easily delivered by supporters. As shown elsewhere, socio-economic and cultural factors are crucial influences on parenting experiences.

The Effect of Labor Dance on Traumatic Childbirth Perception and Comfort: A Randomized Controlled Study

This study aims to evaluate the effect of labor dance on traumatic childbirth perception and comfort. This is a randomized controlled experimental study. The study was conducted with 120 primiparous pregnant women (60 in experiment group, 60 in control group). The pregnant women in the experiment group performed labor dance with the researcher midwife during the active phase of labor. The researcher implemented the Childbirth Comfort Questionnaire (CCQ) when the cervical dilation was 8 cm. The Postpartum Comfort Scale (PCS) and Traumatic Childbirth Perception Scale (TCPS) were implemented almost 2 hours after giving birth. The scores of the women in the experiment group in TCPS were significantly lower than those in the control group while their mean scores in CCQ and PCS were significantly higher. Labor dance contributed to the women’s more positive childbirth experiences, perceptions of childbirth as less traumatic, and increased their comfort levels.