Abstract
ABSTRACT Objective: to understand the meaning assigned by couples to the experience of planned home birth supported by the nurse midwives of the Hanami team. Method: qualitative study in the form of convergent care research developed with 30 couples in the southern region of Brazil within the period between October 2011 and November 2012. Data were collected through interview and participant observation. Analysis included four stages: apprehension, synthesis, theorization, and transfer. Results: one core category was identified: Culturally respectful and sensitive delivery, pointing to a parturitive scenario expected by the couple, fueled by the belief that the professionals selected for this moment are able to understand the worldview, beliefs, values, rituals of care, and the meanings assigned to them; and three subcategories: The realization of an ideal, Birth with the family and The option for their home instead of a hospital. Conclusion: the environmental context of a home implies the totality of a singular experience that respects the physical, holistic-ecological, emotional, and cultural dimensions of a couple, bringing up the home as the place of choice for the delivery. The positive experience of the couples makes up the meaning that the planned home birth is an ideal consistent with the lifestyle, beliefs, values, and culture, consisting in a reproductive and sexual right. Home birth is a new chance to interact with the world and people that are part of the support network to couples in the birth process.
Highlights
Pregnancy, delivery, and postpartum are social, singular events, and contemplative and remarkable experiences in the life of a couple, often involving their families and significant others
The conceptual frameworks of this study used in the professional practice of the nurse midwives of the Hanami eam: the flowering of life enabled the recognition that for the studied couples the planned home birth provided the opportunity to recognize that giving birth in a new time allowed new meanings, in relation to the labor and in their lives and the lives of their family members
The planned home birth emerged as an opportunity to empower the couple to take on the leading role in the labor and birth as a differentiated way of receiving their newborn, in a harmonious and peaceful way, promoting the strengthening of the family and marital relationship
Summary
Delivery, and postpartum are social, singular events, and contemplative and remarkable experiences in the life of a couple, often involving their families and significant others. The delivery may represent a commitment of the contemporary couple to perpetuate life, exercise the right to give birth in a way chosen by them, with those they want, and where they want, in accordance with their personal values and beliefs. Delivery and birth are events that may be experienced in a shared manner; they are considered a form of celebration of life, events of the universe of the couple in accordance with their beliefs These events may involve safety, sensitivity, and intimacy, being affected by the family culture, the type of delivery, and the meaning assigned by those participating in the process. The meanings are built based on the worldview, beliefs, and values that are influenced by the sociocultural context of the individuals or groups, that is, they are not dissociated from the concept of culture that may be read as values, beliefs, rules, and practices of life of a given group, learnt, shared, and transmitted to guide the thought, the decisions, and the actions in a standardized manner.[2,3,4]
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