Abstract

BackgroundThe physical place and environment has a profound influence on experiences, health and wellbeing of birthing women. An alternatively designed delivery room, inspired by the principles of healing architecture and Snoezelen, was established in the Regional Hospital in Herning, Denmark. These principles provided knowledge of how building and interior design affects the senses, including users’ pain experience and stress levels. The aim of the study was to explore women’s experience of the environment and its ability to support the concept of patient-centeredness in the care of birthing women.MethodsApplying a hermeneutical-phenomenological methodology, fourteen semi-structured interviews with low-risk women giving birth in an alternative delivery room at an obstetric unit in Denmark were undertaken 3–7 weeks after birth.ResultsOverall, women’s experiences of given birth in the alternative delivery room were positive. Our analysis suggests that the environment was well adapted to the women’s needs, as it offered a stress- and anxiety-reducing transition to the hospital setting, at the same time as it helped them obtain physical comfort. The environment also signaled respect for the family’s needs as it supported physical and emotional interaction between the woman and her partner and helped relieve her concern for the partner’s well-being. The psychosocial support provided by the midwives appeared inseparable from the alternative delivery room, as both affected, amplified, and occasionally restricted the women’s experience of the physical environment.ConclusionOur findings support the use of principles of healing architecture and Snoezelen in birth environments and add to the evidence on how the physical design of hospital environments influence on both social and physical aspects of the well-being of patients. The environment appeared to encompass several dimensions of the concept of patient-centered care.

Highlights

  • The physical place and environment has a profound influence on experiences, health and wellbeing of birthing women

  • A positive birth experience is associated with long-lasting benefits for the woman, including improved self-esteem and empowerment important to her role as a new mother [1, 4, 5]

  • The overall experience of childbirth is influenced by the course of labor, complications, pain experiences, support, sense of control, as well as the woman’s birth expectations [2, 4]

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Summary

Introduction

The physical place and environment has a profound influence on experiences, health and wellbeing of birthing women. An alternatively designed delivery room, inspired by the principles of healing architecture and Snoezelen, was established in the Regional Hospital in Herning, Denmark. These principles provided knowledge of how building and interior design affects the senses, including users’ pain experience and stress levels. The overall experience of childbirth is influenced by the course of labor, complications, pain experiences, support, sense of control, as well as the woman’s birth expectations [2, 4]. As argued by e.g. Fahy and Parratt [11], the physical birthplace and the delivery room play an important role in the woman’s birth experience

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