Syfte: Att belysa kulturdoulans erfarenheter av att möta nyanlända kvinnor före, under och efter förlossning. Design: En kvalitativ metod med induktiv ansats användes. Data insamlades genom kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer och analyserades med kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Omgivning: Kvinnokliniken i en stad i norra Sverige. Deltagare: Kulturdoulor som kontinuerligt medverkade vid förlossningar. Resultat: Analysen resulterade i tre huvudkategorier: Kulturens inflytande, En drivkraft att hjälpa och att vilja utveckla sig själv, Kulturdoulan är en länk mellan språk och känslor Slutsats: Enligt kulturdoulan är hon en länk mellan språk och kultur. En kulturdoula har oftast fött barn själv samt bistått andra som fött barn. Genom sina egna erfarenheter och utbildning har hon goda kunskaper om förlossningsvård. Detta kombinerat med att kunna flera språk och att vara närvarande under hela förlossningen skapar enligt kulturdoulan en känsla av trygghet för kvinnan. Hon står alltid på kvinnans sida och gör sitt yttersta för att hon ska få en positiv upplevelse. Kulturdoulan kan ofta fylla rollen som en nära kvinnlig släkting eller vän. Kliniska implikationer: Antalet personer som söker asyl i Sverige förväntas vara fortsatt högt. Detta innebär att barnmorskor kommer att möta många kvinnor födda utanför Norden från olika kulturer. I Sverige är mödradödligheten låg men av dem som drabbas är utlandsfödda kvinnor i majoritet, vilket har visats till stor del bero på språkförbistringar. Kulturdoulaprojektet är relativt nytt och lokalt men förhoppning finns att projektet utökas till att i större utsträckning innefatta mödrahälsovården och tiden efter förlossningen samt få en större utbredning nationellt. / Objective: To illuminate the cultural doula’s experiences of meeting newly arrived women before, during and after childbirth. Design: A qualitative method with inductive approach was used. Data was collected through qualitative semistructured interviews and analyzed by qualitative content analysis. Settings: The womens clinic in a city in northern Sweden. Participants: Cultural doulas who continuously participated in childbirth. Findings: The analysis resulted in three main categories: The influence of culture, A driving force to help and wanting to develop oneself, The cultural doula is a link between language and emotions Key conclusions: According to the cultural doula, she is a link between language and culture. It is common that the cultural doula has given birth her self as well as assisted other in childbirth. Through her own experience and education she has good knowledge of care during childbirth. This combined with being able to talk several languages and being present throughout the the childbirth creates a sense of safety for the woman according to the cultural doula. She always take sides with the woman and does the utmost for her to have a positive experience. The cultural doula can often fill the role of a close female relative or friend. Implications for practice: The number of asylum seekers in Sweden is expected to remain at a high level. This will mean that midwives will meet many women born outside of Nordic countries from different cultures. The maternety mortality in Sweden is low, however, of those affected, women born abroad are in majority, which has been shown to be caused mostly by language barriers. The cultural doula project is relatively new and local but will hopefully expand to include the antenatal care and the period after the childbirth and to be more widely distributed nationally.

Obesity is a steadily growing problem, and has both physiological and psychological consequences during pregnancy. Obese women may face discrimination which could shape their perceptions of maternity care. To date, few studies have studied the influence of body weight on patient satisfaction with care. The objectives of this study were: (1) to compare childbirth experiences and satisfaction with intrapartum care of normal weight (BMI between 18.5 and 24.9 kg/m2) and obese (BMI greater than or equal to 30.0 kg/m2) women and (2) to determine factors associated with satisfaction with intrapartum care. Guided by Barker’s (1997) pragmatic model of patient satisfaction, a descriptive comparative and correlational design was used to examine the relationship between childbirth experiences, weight discrimination, and satisfaction with intrapartum care among normal weight and obese women. Postpartum primiparous women (N = 138) in two Winnipeg hospitals completed a questionnaire package and had their chart reviewed (70 normal weight, 68 obese weight). Results: Using independent t-test, no significant differences in satisfaction with intrapartum care or childbirth experiences were found in the two weight groups. In the linear multiple regression model, perceived weight discrimination during labour and delivery was negatively associated (β = -5.78, p = 0.032), while professional support (β = 13.11, p < .001) and perceived control and safety (β = 3.25, p = 0.032) were positively associated with satisfaction with intrapartum care. Understanding factors that influence satisfaction with intrapartum care will assist healthcare providers and administrators to improve satisfaction in all women regardless of their weight. / May 2016

The author joins the Peace Corps in the hopes that he will discover who he really is yet he only finds frustration. Upon returning to the States he has a daughter and finds peace. Within this peace, as he types up the life history of a friend, he finally makes a breakthrough, yet the answer he finds is not to his liking.

Bakgrund: Forskningen visar att kvinnor tycker det finns en vinst i att ha ett postpartumsamtal, de värdesätter att få stämma av sin förlossningsupplevelse. Ändå erbjuds inte alla kvinnor detta. Tidigare forskning har visat att barnmorskor likaså värdesätter postpartumsamtal för kvinnans skull men att barnmorskorna saknar utbildning i att genomföra postpartumsamtal på ett tillfredsställande sätt. Syfte: Syftet var att beskriva barnmorskors erfarenheter och upplevelser kring postpartumsamtal. Metod: Tre fokusgruppsintervjuer genomfördes med barnmorskor som arbetar på förlossningsavdelning. Semistrukturerad intervju genomfördes utifrån en frågeguide. Som analysmetod användes kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Resultat: Ett tema, fyra kategorier och 15 underkategorier identifierades. Temat var: Postpartumsamtal idag: Att möta behovet och framtidens utmaningar. Kategorierna var: Postpartumsamtalets betydelse för kvinnan, Postpartumsamtal inte för alla, Genomförande av postpartumsamtal och Förutsättningar för postpartumsamtal. Slutsats: Barnmorskornas upplevelse var att postpartumsamtalet är viktigt för kvinnor, deras partners samt för barnmorskorna själva. Anpassning av organisationen behövs för att erbjuda postpartumsamtal utifrån föräldraparets behov. Kunskap från postpartumsamtal kan tillvaratas för utveckling både för personlig yrkesutveckling för barnmorskan och vårdutveckling för organisationen. Detta kan vara ett steg mot en mer kvinnocentrerad vård. Klinisk tillämpbarhet: Studiens resultat skulle kunna leda till utveckling av rutiner kring postpartumsamtal. Ytterligare forskning behövs för att utveckla en samtalsmodell som kan tydliggöra postpartumsamtalets utförande och innehåll. / Background: Previous research shows postpartum counselling beneficial, women value to talk about their childbirth experiences. Still, not all women are offered the option of postpartum counselling. Midwives find it beneficial for women to have a postpartum counselling. Midwives find they have a lack of knowledge to perform fulfilling postpartum counselling. Aim: The aim was to describe midwives’ experiences of postpartum counselling. Method: Three focus group interviews were conducted with midwives employed at the maternity ward. The interviews were semi-structured, based on a questionnaire. Qualitative content analysis was used as the analyze method. Results: One theme, four categories and 15 subcategories were identified. The theme was: Postpartum counselling today: To meet the need and challenges for the future. The categories were: The meaning of postpartum counselling for the woman, Postpartum counselling, not for everyone, To perform postpartum counselling, Conditions to perform postpartum counselling. Conclusion: The midwives’ experiences were that postpartum counselling was of importance to women, their partners but also for the midwive. The organization is in need for adjustment to be able to offer postpartum counselling based on the parents’ needs. Knowledge could be drawn from postpartum counselling for both professional development and care development. This could be one step closer to women centered care. Clinical application: The results of the study could lead to development of routines surrounding postpartum counselling. Yet there is a need for more research in the development of a postpartum counselling model. The model could clarify the content and how to perform postpartum counselling.

The republic of South Africa has a “health for all” policy, regardless of nationality and residence status. However, challenges still exist for non-nationals and little is known regarding migrants’ maternal healthcare experiences. This study explores the maternal healthcare experiences of migrant Zimbabwean women living in Johannesburg, South Africa. It focuses on the lived experiences of women aged 18years and above, who engaged with the public healthcare system in Johannesburg during pregnancy and childbirth. A desk review of the literature was undertaken. The theoretical framework in this study draws from three concepts (1) the Social determinants of health framework (WHO 2010), (2) the Access to healthcare framework (McIntyre, Thiede and Brich 2009) and (3) the “three-delays (Nour 2008). Primary data was collected through the use of open-ended semi-structured interviews with a sample of 15 migrant Zimbabwean women who have been in Johannesburg for a minimum of 2 years, and have attended and given birth or are currently attending antenatal care in inner city Johannesburg. Thematic content analysis was used to analyse data since it helps to extract descriptive information concerning the experiences of Zimbabwean women in Johannesburg and to construct meaning in order to understand their perceptions and opinions about the healthcare system in the city. Although the findings indicate that documentation status is not a key issue affecting access to healthcare during pregnancy and delivery, a range of other healthcare barriers were found to dominate, including the nature of their employment, power relations, language, and discrimination(generally) among others. Language was singled out as the major challenge that runs throughout the other barriers. More interestingly the participants raised their desire of returning home or changing facilities within the Public sector or to private institutions in case of any further pregnancy. This study concludes that the bone of contention is on belongingness, deservingness and not being able to speak any local language, that runs through the public health care institutions and this impact on professionalism and discharge of duties.

Thesis (M.Sc.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Science,1976.

Na literatura, existem inúmeras produções sobre a memória de profissionais relacionada à assistência ao parto; no entanto, o registro de memórias maternas é escasso. A perspectiva das mulheres é importante por representar a opinião e a experiência dos sujeitos da assistência ao longo da história. Este estudo teve o objetivo de compreender as transformações no modelo de assistência ao parto a partir da experiência de mulheres que deram à luz no Estado de São Paulo nas décadas de 1940 a 1980. Para isso, fez-se um estudo do tipo descritivo, com abordagem qualitativa, segundo o método da História Oral Temática. A colônia foi constituída por 20 mulheres que são mães, avós e bisavós de egressos da primeira turma do Curso de Obstetrícia da Escola de Artes, Ciências e Humanidades da Universidade de São Paulo. Os dados foram coletados por meio de entrevista não estruturada, com base em um roteiro com temas relativos à experiência no parto. Foi realizada a transcrição integral, textualização e transcriação das narrativas orais. O texto final foi submetido à análise de conteúdo. O projeto foi aprovado por Comitê de Ética e o uso das narrativas foi autorizado pelas entrevistadas mediante carta de Cessão Gratuita de Direitos de Depoimento Oral. Os resultados mostraram que as mulheres entrevistadas tiveram um total de 49 partos, em São Paulo, no período estudado. Nas décadas de 1940 a 1970 (1ª geração), ocorreram 22 partos normais, um fórcipe e duas cesarianas, enquanto que na década de 1980 (2ª geração), as mulheres tiveram 16 cesarianas, sete partos normais e um fórcipe. Até a década de 1960, o local do parto predominante foi o domicílio (16 partos, do total de 25) e as mulheres foram assistidas majoritariamente por parteiras (20 partos). A partir da década seguinte, todos os partos ocorreram no hospital. Na análise temática, foram identificados os temas: A Experiência do Parto (abordando a experiência na gravidez, parto e puerpério e a escolha do profissional) e A Maternidade e seu Contexto (abordando a contracepção, o planejamento e confirmação da gravidez, a amamentação, os cuidados com o bebê e as tarefas do lar). Os resultados indicaram uma demarcação geracional e temporal nos anos de 1970. A experiência das mulheres da 1ª geração ocorreu no contexto de transição do modelo assistencial, enquanto que as mulheres da 2ª geração experienciaram, a partir de 1980, a consolidação de um modelo de parto hospitalocêntrico. A década de 1980 representa um momento de inflexão dos elementos que compões o modelo assistencial, como o tipo e o local do parto e o profissional que assiste a mulher, com incremento da tecnologia e das intervenções obstétricas. / In literature, there are numerous papers on the memories of professionals related to childbirth model care; however, maternal memories are scarce. The womens perspective is important because it represents the views and experience of those subjects to childbirth care throughout the history. This study aimed to understand the changes in the childbirth model care from the experience of women who gave birth in the State of Sao Paulo from 1940s to 1980s. A descriptive study was developed with a qualitative approach, using the method of thematic oral history. The colony consisted of 20 women who are mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmother of the first group of graduates of the Midwifery Course - School of Arts, Sciences and Humanities, Universidade de São Paulo. Data were collected through unstructured interviews, based on issues related to the experience of giving birth. A full transcription, textualization and transcriation of oral narratives were made. The final text was submitted to content analysis. The project was approved by the ethics committee and the use of narratives authorized by those interviewed who signed a letter of Oral Testimony Agreement Rights Transfer. The results showed that the women interviewed had a total of 49 births in Sao Paulo, during the period studied. In the decades from 1940 to 1970 (1st generation), there were 22 normal births, one forceps and two cesarean sections, whereas in the 1980s (2nd generation), 16 women had caesarean sections, seven normal births and one forceps. Until the 1960s, home was the predominant place of birth (16 births, out of 25) and the majority was assisted by midwives (20 births). From the next decade on, all births occurred in hospital facilities. Two themes were identified in the thematic analysis: \"The Experience of Childbirth\" (addressing the themes pregnancy and childbirth and the choice of the birth professional) and \"Motherhood and its Context\" (addressing contraception, planning and confirming pregnancy, breastfeeding, caring for the baby and housework). The result indicated a time and generational demarcation in the 1970s. Women\'s experiences of the 1st generation occurred in the context of the transitional childbirth model care while women from the 2nd generation experienced, in the 1980s, the consolidation of a hospital-centered birth model. The 1980s represent a turning point in the elements that compose the childbirth model care, such as the type and place of birth and the professional who assists the mother, with increasing advance in technology and obstetric interventions.

A transição para a paternidade é um período na vida do homem que está imbuído de imensas transformações. Durante esta fase ele pode experimentar diversas situações que podem ter consequências positivas ou negativas para a adaptação nesse novo papel. A realização deste estudo foi impulsionada pelos questionamentos que permeiam a participação do pai diante da experiência de nascimento do primeiro filho. Este estudo visou compreender as percepções de pais pela primeira vez frente à transição para a paternidade e descrever os incidentes críticos relacionados à experiência de transição para a paternidade do nascimento ao período pós-parto. Foi realizado estudo descritivo que utilizou como referencial metodológico a técnica dos incidentes críticos. Foram realizadas entrevistas com 10 homens, pais pela primeira vez que vivenciavam o período pós-parto em um município do interior de São Paulo, tendo como foco suas percepções diante de transição para a paternidade. Os resultados foram agrupados por categorias e subcategorias que caracterizavam os períodos da experiência dos pais: 1) Nascimento do bebê: acompanhar o parto e não acompanhar o parto; 2) Período de Internação: momento da visita; permanência no hospital e interação com o bebê no hospital e 3) Levar o bebê para casa: dificuldades com a amamentação, interação com o bebê, interação com a esposa e interação com outros membros da família. Os incidentes negativos foram relatados em numero maior do que os positivos e relacionaram-se às situações que envolveram obstáculos para participar do parto e do período de hospitalização e insegurança para pegar e cuidar do bebê depois da alta. Os incidentes positivos relacionaram-se à participação do pai no parto e às facilidades nas interações com o bebê no hospital e em casa. A paternidade significa crescimento para o pai e a percepção de que ocorre uma mudança como pessoa e na forma como encara a sua vida e a dos que dependem dele. Os resultados deste estudo são evidências que apontam para as necessidades do pai no período que envolve o nascimento do primeiro filho e suas implicações para a enfermagem. Apontam também para a necessidade da inclusão do pai pelos serviços de saúde, organizando estratégias de intervenção voltadas para o acolhimento e o apoio ao pai nas situações que envolvem o nascimento do filho, desde o pré-natal ao período pós-parto. / The transition to fatherhood is a period in the life of a man that is imbued of huge transformations. During this period, he can experience various situations that can bring about positive or negative consequences for his adaptation in this new role. This study was driven by questions related to fathers participation in the experience of birth of his first child. This research aimed to understand first-time fathers perceptions concerning transition to fatherhood as well as to describe the critical incidents related to this transition experience, from the birth to postpartum period. A descriptive study was realized using as a methodological referential the critical incidents technique. Interviews were conducted with 10 men, first-time fathers that experienced the postpartum period in a city of Sao Paulo, focusing their perceptions in relation to fatherhood transition. The results were classified in categories and subcategories that characterized periods of this experience by the fathers: 1) Babys birth: watch the childbirth and not watch the childbirth. 2) Hospitalization period: moment of visiting; permanence in the hospital and interaction with the baby in the hospital. 3) Taking baby home: difficulties with breastfeeding; interaction with the baby; interaction with wife and interaction with other relatives. The negative incidents were reported in larger number than the positive ones, and were related to the situations that involved obstacles to take part in the childbirth and in the hospitalization period, as well as uncertainty to take care of the baby after mothers hospital discharge. The positive incidents were related to the fathers taking part in the childbirth as well as to the ease of interactions with the baby in the hospital and at home. Childbirth means growth for the father besides the perception that a changing occurs as a person and in the way he faces his own life as well as the ones that belong to people that count on him. The outcomes of this study are evidences that point to the fathers necessities in the period that involves the birth of his first child and its implications for nursing. They also point to the fathers necessity of being included by the health services, preparing intervention strategies for care and support fathers in situations that involve the birth, from prenatal to postpartum period.

Thesis advisor: Sharlene N. Hesse-Biber / This dissertation seeks to understand obstetricians’ lived experience of decision-making in childbirth and investigate how the organizational context within which obstetricians work influences how they make treatment decisions. Understanding how obstetricians make decisions in childbirth is important because maternity care in the United States is in crisis. Our system is failing women on multiple accounts: between 1990 and 2013, maternal mortality more than doubled in the United States, and is higher than most other high-income countries. Furthermore, women continue to suffer from abusive practices by maternity care providers who dismiss their concerns and sometimes outright refuse to honor their self-determination in childbirth. Today multiple stakeholders acknowledge a need for maternity care reform; this creates new challenges for health care policy and opportunities for social science research. Obstetrician-gynecologists provide the majority of maternity care to American women, and this dissertation examines their lived experience of decision-making in birth and analyzes how a range of social forces affect this process. To investigate this phenomenon I performed 50 in-depth interviews with obstetricians from Massachusetts, Louisiana and Vermont about how they make patient care decisions in birth. The specific research questions and analysis for each chapter evolved through an iterative process that combined analytical grounded theory and template analysis. I present this in a three-article format. In article one I show how shift-work models of labor and delivery pose challenges to using a patient-centered approach to decision-making. Obstetricians either work shifts in labor and delivery or they work on-call for their patients’ births. The current thinking is that shifts are good because they allow work-life balance for doctors, reduce fatigue, and reduce convenience-based decisions. Shift work models assume that doctors and patients are interchangeable because doctors will follow protocols and standards of care produced by medical professional organizations. I argue shift work does not work in practice the way it does in theory. I explain how there are not standards for many decisions in birth, instead these decisions are characterized by medical uncertainty. In these cases, doctors rely on patient-centered approaches to make decisions. But shift work limits doctors’ ability to use patient-centered approaches. I found that shift-work models of hospital care do not provide doctors the opportunity to get to know their patients and understand their preferences. In practices that do not depend on shift work, the doctor patient relationship is far less fragmented and doctors tend to experience less conflict with their patients and are less likely to rely on stereotypes that reproduce social inequality. In article two I examine obstetricians’ understandings of convenience as a motivation in decision-making. Anecdotal evidence suggests that obstetricians sometimes make clinical care decisions less out of concern for their patients and more out of concern for their own time and schedule. This may be a particular problem in on-call models. In this paper I show doctors’ stories match anecdotal evidence: Some obstetricians make clinical decisions in birth based partially on their own convenience. Yet others actively resist the temptation of convenience, even in on-call care. A key dimension of this difference lies in doctors’ understandings of the nature of time in labor and the safety of interventions. Some doctors have a faster-the-better approach to birth and believe the routine use of interventions is the best way to practice in labor and delivery. These doctors frame their own convenience as legitimate because it overlaps with the idea that speeding up the labor is inherently good. Alternatively, other doctors believe time in labor is productive, and that interventions should be used judiciously because they increase risk of harm. These doctors cannot easily legitimize convenience because it conflicts with the reduction of interventions as a key dimension of this philosophy. I argue that because shift work poses serious challenges to patient-centered care, cultural change is a better avenue for reducing births of convenience. Article three addresses an ongoing question in medical sociology about whether physicians maintain control over their clinical work amidst challenges to their authority. Patient empowerment and standardization are two movements that sociologists have theorized in terms of weakening of doctors’ clinical discretion. I uncover how obstetricians draw on the conflicting nature of these approaches strategically to maintain their power in the face of a threat. Standards and patient empowerment act as countervailing powers; they drew on one to off set the challenge to their authority posed by the other. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2017. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology.

A assistência ao parto em Centro de Parto Normal (CPN) mostra-se como uma tendência a ser incorporada por muitos serviços de assistência obstétrica no contexto brasileiro. Estudos com enfoque na experiência do cuidado, segundo a perspectiva da mulher, ainda são escassos. A presente pesquisa teve como objetivo descrever a experiência de mulheres que receberam assistência ao parto em um CPN. O estudo de abordagem qualitativa utilizou a análise da narrativa, como método de pesquisa. Este método é composto das fases de ler, analisar, transcrever, contar e ouvir a experiência; sua essência consiste no acesso à experiência primária, tal como representada pela pessoa que a vivencia. A análise dos depoimentos, foi desenvolvida de forma indutiva e interpretativa e resultou nas seguintes categorias descritivas da representação da experiência: a) O primeiro atendimento recebido no hospital; b) As experiências vividas no Centro de Parto Normal que foram relativas às orientações recebidas dos profissionais, as práticas de cuidado realizadas no trabalho de parto, os procedimentos executados pelos profissionais, a permanência do profissional no ambiente assistencial, o relacionamento interpessoal estabelecido pelos profissionais, a presença do acompanhante e as percepções em relação à sensação dolorosa; c) A estrutura física do hospital e d) Os conhecimentos e demandas por orientação expressos pelas mulheres. A categoria central A satisfação com a assistência recebida sintetiza a representação coletiva da experiência da assistência recebida no CPN. A experiência positiva relatada pelas mulheres confirma a premissa de que o local de assistência e as suas características influenciam a qualidade da assistência ao parto. Esta constatação fornece sustentação à política pública vigente no Brasil, que recomenda a implementação de CPNs em todo o território nacional. Cabe aos profissionais atuantes nesse contexto, o desenvolvimento da assistência ao parto, de acordo com as recomendações internacionais. / The healthcare rendered during childbirth in Birth Centers (BC) is seen as a trend to be incorporated by several services of obstetrical units in Brazil. Studies focusing on the experience of care according to the woman`s perspective are scarce. The objective of this research was to describe the experience of women who received healthcare during childbirth in a BC. This qualitative used descriptive analysis as a research method. The method consisted of steps to read, analyze, transcribe, relate and listen to experiences, its essence is the primary access to the experience, exactly as presented by the person who experienced it. Analysis of the interviews was developed in an inductive and interpretative manner and resulted in the following categories describing the representation about the experience: a) The first healthcare received in the hospital; b) Experiences in the Birth Center in accordance with guidelines received from the professionals, care practices performed during the childbirth, procedures executed by the professionals, permanence of the professional in the healthcare environment, interpersonal relationship established by the professionals, presence of a patient companion, and perceptions related to pain; c) The hospital physical structure; and d) The demands for knowledge and guidance expressed by women. The central category Satisfaction with the care received summarizes the collective representation of the healthcare received in the BC. The positive experience described by the women, confirms the premises that the healthcare unit and its characteristics do influence the quality of healthcare during childbirth. This finding provides support to current public policy in Brazil, which recommends the implementation of BC throughout the country. It is up to the professionals working in this context to develop childbirth care in accordance with international recommendations.