Ambiance as a Key for a Better Birth Experience.

Abstract

This research provides insights into childbirth as a sensitive experience, from the perspective of its user, "woman in labour," as well as from the perspective of the event itself, "the childbirth," and the birth space, with its spatial and ambiantal configurations. By adopting an in-situ approach, we conducted a spatial and ambiantal characterization of two childbirth different contexts; Tunis and Grenoble. Along this work, we used various methods such as ethnographic observation and semistructured interviews with mothers and midwives, when following visits to the birth spaces in Grenoble. Our experimental protocol was refined by introducing the capture of emotions, notably through the analysis of electrodermal activity variation, for the case of the Maternity and Neonatology Center in Tunis. In correlation with observations and interviews, the analysis of electrodermal activity reveals the mother's emotional state. Subsequently, we undertook a transposition and synthesis of significant ambiantal situations encountered in the birth space in Grenoble and Tunis, during labour phase of childbirth. Six ambiantal situations-types are identified and distributed across two dimensions: luminous and kinesthetic. The results of this research are extremely useful to guide the choices in design of birth space while at the same time considering the well-being of woman in labour. We will end with an ambiantal project that proposes interventions on spatial quality by introducing an ambiantal dimension to the birth space.