Abstract
Background: South Africa struggles to improve maternal health outcomes resulting to its failure to achieve millennium development goal for maternal health. Non-utilisation of antenatal health services by pregnant mothers is the leading cause of unbooked cases that complicate the labour stages. Purpose: The purpose of the study was to explore the experiences of midwives for caring unbooked pregnant women in a maternity unit at a district hospital in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. Design and Methods: A phenomenological approach was adopted in this study. Specifically, a descriptive phenomenological deign was used to explore midwives’ experiences for caring unbooked pregnant women in maternity ward of a district hospital on six (6) purposively selected midwives. In this study, the researcher utilised individual, semi structured phenomenological interviews to collect data from midwives caring for unbooked pregnant mothers in a maternity unit. Data saturation was reached after carrying out the six interviews. These interviews were audio taped and transcribed verbatim and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis framework steps method of qualitative data was applied to analyse the collected data. Results: Three thematic categories emerged from data analysis: 1) Experiences of midwives, which interfered with emotional challenges leading to fear and anxiety. Experiences of midwives were also associated with shortage of midwives and leading to maternal incidences. 2) Caring for unbooked pregnant mothers interfered with incompetency and inexperienced midwives and reported a lack of debriefing. 3) Support system which was seen as lacking from managers. Conclusion: The study recommended collaboration with primary health care clinics including community leaders, and employment of highly skilled professionals and in-service trainings of the current midwives to minimise unnecessary incidences.
Highlights
Introduction and Background InformationSouth Africa is struggling to improve maternal and perinatal outcomes as there is a failure to attain millennium development goal for maternal health [1]
The experiences of midwives were centered on their practical issues that would enhance quality of care in the maternal health facilities
The majority of experiences of midwives were supported by findings from other literature searches conducted
Summary
Introduction and Background InformationSouth Africa is struggling to improve maternal and perinatal outcomes as there is a failure to attain millennium development goal for maternal health [1]. Most of the factors leading to this failure include negative attitudes of nurses towards pregnant women and lack of skills on handling pregnant women. These are leading causes of poor health outcomes in the maternal health. The existence of the afore-mentioned maternal health factors including poor perinatal outcomes was highly associated with non-utilisation of antenatal and delivery care services. Purpose: The purpose of the study was to explore the experiences of midwives for caring unbooked pregnant women in a maternity unit at a district hospital in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. The researcher utilised individual, semi structured phenomenological interviews to collect data from midwives caring for unbooked pregnant mothers in a maternity unit. Conclusion: The study recommended collaboration with primary health care clinics including community leaders, and employment of highly skilled professionals and in-service trainings of the current midwives to minimise unnecessary incidences
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