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Hopes and dreams : learning from the perceptions of "high-risk" pregnant Aboriginal women

A qualitative study was conducted to identify perceptions of high-risk pregnant Aboriginal women during pregnancy. Five women were interviewed by the researcher who is also Aboriginal. Each woman was a client of the Healthy Mother Healthy Baby pregnancy outreach program in Saskatoon, and was considered to be at high-risk for poor pregnancy outcomes. Interviews were conducted utilizing a phenomenologically-based model of research, from which emerged themes or commonalities of thought between each woman during this time of their lives. The themes were discussed with Aboriginal women elders who worked with Aboriginal families in Saskatoon, for further insight and discussion of the findings. The themes were collated under one general theme called `hopes and dreams.' Each theme included the interest of these women to `want to' move ahead with their lives in the area of improving their relationships with their offspring, their partners, and within themselves. Though each women talked about these areas as being important, all except one did not manifest them in their lives.<p>
The implications for the delivery of health care services include the need for health care workers to gain further understanding of the positive motivational factors of high-risk pregnant Aboriginal women that work towards achieving long-term positive behavioural changes, and thus reduce the risks of poor pregnancy outcomes. Other recommendations from this research for health promotion programs include the development of a partnership with the urban Aboriginal community in delivering culturally-based services and teachings to complement the educative and supportive model of program delivery.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:SSU.etd-01172008-114809
Date14 April 2008
CreatorsWilson, Susan Valerie Joan
ContributorsTan, Leonard, Green, Kathryn, Ferguson, Linda, Feather, Joan
PublisherUniversity of Saskatchewan
Source SetsLibrary and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
Sourcehttp://library.usask.ca/theses/available/etd-01172008-114809/
Rightsunrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Saskatchewan or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report.

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