Abstract
BackgroundBirth stories provide an intimate glimpse into women’s birth experiences in their own words. Understanding the emotions elicited in women by certain types of behaviors during labor and delivery could help those in the health care community provide better emotional care for women in labor.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to understand which supportive reactions and behaviors contributed to negative or positive emotions among women with regard to their labor and delivery experience.MethodsWe sampled 10 women’s stories from a popular blog that described births that strayed from the plan. Overall, 90 challenging events that occurred during labor and delivery were identified. Each challenge had an emotionally positive, negative, or neutral evaluation by the woman. We classified supportive and unsupportive behaviors in response to these challenges and examined their association with the woman’s emotional appraisal of the challenges.ResultsOverall, 4 types of behaviors were identified: informational inclusion, decisional inclusion (mostly by health care providers), practical support, and emotional support (mostly by partners). Supportive reactions were not associated with emotional appraisal; however, unsupportive reactions were associated with women appraising the challenge negatively (Fisher exact test, P=.02).ConclusionsAlthough supportive behaviors did not elicit any particular emotion, unsupportive behaviors did cause women to view challenges negatively. It is worthwhile conducting a larger scale investigation to observe what happens when patients express their needs, particularly when challenges present themselves during labor, and health care professionals strive to cater to them.
Highlights
The experience of birth is an event that women anticipate and prepare for months in advance
Conclusions: supportive behaviors did not elicit any particular emotion, unsupportive behaviors did cause women to view challenges negatively. It is worthwhile conducting a larger scale investigation to observe what happens when patients express their needs, when challenges present themselves during labor, and health care professionals strive to cater to them. (JMIR Pediatr Parent 2018;1(2):e12206) doi:10.2196/12206
Our study explored whether these supports were given by health care providers, and by partners who accompanied the women to birth
Summary
Background The experience of birth is an event that women anticipate and prepare for months in advance. It holds a place of real significance in their lives and that of their baby. Women often approach the birth experience with expectations and trepidation. This is frequently expressed in their birth plans. The most common element of birth plans is pain management [1], but women express requests regarding atmosphere and postpartum events [2]. Women’s plans and wishes for their birth are often communicated to the health care providers to increase coordination around labor and delivery preferences [3]. Understanding the emotions elicited in women by certain types of behaviors during labor and delivery could help those in the health care community provide better emotional care for women in labor
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