Birth Beliefs Research Articles

Testing a biopsychosocial model of the basic birth beliefs.

Women perceive what birth is even before they are pregnant for the first time. Part of this conceptualization is the basic belief about birth as a medical and natural process. These two separate beliefs are pivotal in the decision-making process about labor and birth. Adapting Engel's biopsychosocial framework, we explored the importance of a wide range of factors which may contribute to these beliefs among first-time mothers. This observational study included 413 primiparae ≥24weeks' gestation, recruited in medical centers and in natural birth communities in Israel. The women completed a questionnaire which included the Birth Beliefs Scale and a variety of biopsychosocial characteristics such as obstetric history, birth environment, optimism, health-related anxiety, and maternal expectations. Psychological dispositions were more related to the birth beliefs than the social or biomedical factors. Sociodemographic characteristics and birth environment were only marginally related to the birth beliefs. The basic belief that birth is a natural process was positively related to optimism and to conceiving spontaneously. Beliefs that birth is a medical process were related to pessimism, health-related anxiety, and to expectations that an infant's behavior reflects mothering. Expectations about motherhood as being naturally fulfilling were positively related to both beliefs. Psychological factors seem to be most influential in the conceptualization of the beliefs. It is important to recognize how women interpret the messages they receive about birth which, together with their obstetric experience, shape their beliefs. Future studies are recommended to understand the evolution of these beliefs, especially within diverse cultures.

The birth beliefs scale – a new measure to assess basic beliefs about birth

Introduction: Basic beliefs about birth as a natural and safe or a medical and risky process are central in the decisions on where and how to birth. Despite their importance, they have not been studied separately from other childbirth-related constructs. Our aim was to develop a measure to assess these beliefs.Method: Pregnant Israeli women (N = 850, gestational week ≥14) were recruited in women’s health centers, in online natural birth forums, and through home midwives. Participants filled in questionnaires including sociodemographic and obstetric background, the Birth Beliefs Scale (BBS), dispositional desire for control (DC) and planned mode of delivery.Results: Factor analyses revealed that the BBS is composed of two factors: beliefs about birth as a natural process and beliefs about birth as a medical process. Both subscales showed good internal and test–retest reliability. They had good construct validity, predicted birth choices, and were weakly correlated with DC. Women’s medical obstetric history was associated with the BBS, further supporting the validity of the scale.Discussion: Beliefs about birth may be the building blocks that make up perceptions of birth and drive women’s preferences. The new scale provides an easy way to distinctly assess them so they can be used to further understand planned birth behaviors. Additional studies are needed to comprehend how these beliefs form in different cultural contexts and how they evolve over time.

Reliability and validity of an instrument to measure the beliefs of intrapartum nurses.

Intrapartum nurses assume a central role in the birth process and make decisions driven by a set of beliefs. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop a valid and reliable instrument to measure birth beliefs of intrapartum nurses related to birth practice. A total of 313 intrapartum nurses accessed this online, self-administered instrument over a 3-month period. The Theory of Planned Behavior guided development of the Intrapartum Nurses' Beliefs Related to Birth Practice scale and provided a basis for the connection between beliefs and practice. This article describes the psychometric analysis of the instrument. Findings include a moderate, positive correlation with a similar instrument, a Cronbach α of 0.797, and 2 factors identifying belief systems. With further revision, this instrument may provide an accurate measure of the birth beliefs of intrapartum nurses.

Development of the Intrapartum Nurses' Beliefs Related to Birth Practice Scale.

Intrapartum (IP) nurses make decisions driven by beliefs. This study's purpose was to develop an instrument measuring birth beliefs of the IP nurse related to birth practice. The theory of planned behavior guided the development process, providing a connection between beliefs and practice. This article describes the domain identification, item generation, and instrumentation process. The Intrapartum Nurses' Beliefs Related to Birth Practice (IPNBBP) is an online, self-administered instrument with 36 Likert scale items measuring the birth beliefs of IP nurse and categorizes medicalized birth beliefs, normal birth beliefs, and beliefs outlined in the theory of planned behavior. Following psychometric testing, the IPNBBP may be used to provide a link between the beliefs and practice of IP nursing and maternal and neonatal outcomes.

Birth practices of Nigerian women in the UK

This literature review was carried out in the UK to explore the cultural practices of Nigerian women during pregnancy and childbirth both within and outside their indigenous community, in order to highlight aspects of birth practices that may serve to enhance their health and wellbeing or to constrain these. Literature was sourced from journals of related disciplines. To encapsulate current knowledge and broaden the scope of the literature review, only articles published within the last 2 decades were selected for this review. Themes drawn from the literature review sum up core beliefs and practices of Nigerian women in childbirth and uncover existing knowledge on the topic in relation to: beliefs and traditions through the birth continuum, the influence of culture on birth practices and beliefs within and outside their indigenous community, challenges of culture to maternal adaptation and/or transition to motherhood in terms of migration and acculturation, the value of motherhood and children in Nigerian culture, social support or the lack of it, religion and spirituality and the interplay of these in their birth experiences. These themes bear relevance to Nigerian women’s experience of pregnancy, birth and maternity care experience both in their home country and in the UK.

Birth practices of Nigerian women: A literature review

This literature review was carried out in the UK to explore the cultural practices of Nigerian women during pregnancy and childbirth both within and outside their indigenous community, in order to highlight aspects of birth practices that may serve to enhance their health and wellbeing or to constrain these. Literature was sourced from journals of related disciplines. To encapsulate current knowledge and broaden the scope of the literature review, only articles published within the last 2 decades were selected for this review. Themes drawn from the literature review sum up core beliefs and practices of Nigerian women in childbirth and uncover existing knowledge on the topic in relation to: beliefs and traditions through the birth continuum, the influence of culture on birth practices and beliefs within and outside their indigenous community, challenges of culture to maternal adaptation and/or transition to motherhood in terms of migration and acculturation, the value of motherhood and children in Nigerian culture, social support or the lack of it, religion and spirituality and the interplay of these in their birth experiences. These themes bear relevance to Nigerian women's experience of pregnancy, birth and maternity care experience both within and outside of their home country.

Socio-cultural determinants of female foeticide

The social, cultural, religious and psychological fibres of India are predominantly patriarchal contributing extensively to the secondary status of women. A popular stereotype is strong preference of a male child. The deficit of women in India's population has been documented ever since the first decennial enumeration of people was conducted in the British-occupied parts of India in the late 19th century. Over the span of more than 100 years, the deficit of women has progressively increased as evident from the sex ratio of the population; the number of women per 1000 men more or less steadily declined from 972 in 1901 to 933 in 2001, The explanation for India's low sex ratio are the trends of increasing masculinization and discrimination against woman. Sex selective abortion is a matter of great concern. The social and demographic implications of sex selective abortions are grave. In much of South Asia, sons are preferred over daughters for a number of reasons such as economic, social and religious reasons including financial support, old age security, property inheritance, dowry, family lineage, prestige and power, birth and death rituals and beliefs about religious duties and salvation. There are several forces associated with female foeticide which need research. The present study on 217 subjects in equal number of males and females drawn from the population using the simple random technique was completed in Delhi in the age group of 15-40 years. There are some salient findings such as: (1) The role of family planning and the fear of not being able to earn the resources seem to play relatively a greater role than the common belief about the son preference. This finding needs further research to find out the relative position of known factors contributing to the growing issue of sex selecting abortion; (2) The detection of the sex of the foetus and illegal abortion (Sex Selective Abortion), are placed as two steps. It is not necessary that all going for sex detection would opt for illegal abortion but there is probability of a very close relation rather than a linear relationship between sex detection and illegal abortion. The distancebetween the two can be broadened if close monitoring and strict regulationof abortion law is carried out in the country with a strong partnership with the influencing people in the society; and (3) Socially sensitive measures seem to be more important than the legal measures. One alsogets the impression from the findings that the explanations broadly quoted in the literature to explain the issues of declining child sex ratio are narrow and biased. Many of them are based on assumptions and a general theoretical framework to explain the gender discrimination. Findings in this table provide a valuable contribution to the issue of child sex ratio, which of course need to be studied further on the largest sample using scientifically developed measures/tools/techniques.

Birthing at home: the resolution of expectations

Objective: to describe the experience of ten couples who have had a home birth in Western Australia. Design, setting and participants: using a phenomenological approach, ten parent couples were interviewed and three home-birth videos observed. Of the ten couples, four discussed their first child's home birth. The remaining six couples had three or four children who had been born at home. Findings: the essence of these parents' experiences of home birth was gained through identifying significant statements from transcripts and field notes and clustering these into the four themes of ‘constructing the environment’; ‘assuming control’; ‘birthing’; and ‘resolving expectations’. The first two themes were presented in a previous paper (Morison et al 1998). The latter two themes are now presented. The theme ‘birthing’ was where parents elaborated on their birth beliefs, discussed the actual birth and shared aspects of the relationship between the couple and the midwife. ‘Resolving expectations’ concerned the process of parents forming expectations, experiencing the reality of birth and then evaluating whether expectations were met. Key conclusions: the development of a supportive relationship between couples and their midwife was essential during this transition to parenthood. Resolving expectations was an essential process that the parents undertook to clarify the meaning of their birth experience, and thereby acknowledge its uniqueness. Implications for practice: the findings are important to midwives' practice as they reveal the value clients place on a shared philosophy about birth. Midwives, in any setting, can reflect on their own birthing beliefs and determine their compatibility with their clients' beliefs.

MARGINALIZED WOMEN'S COMPARISONS OF THEIR HOSPITAL AND FREESTANDING BIRTH CENTER EXPERIENCES: A CONTRAST OF INNER-CITY BIRTHING SYSTEMS

The process of birth provides a structure around which social and cultural forces guide its expression. These social and cultural forces reflect the organization of power in a society while creating the potential for diversity in birth beliefs, practices, and experiences. In this article, marginalized women contrast their experiences in the cultures of two divergent birth systems: the technocratic hospital system and a freestanding midwifery managed birth center system. The women in this study come from many different cultures, yet they share a common desire to (a) control the birth environment, (b) establish supportive interpersonal connections with providers, (c) have a safe birth, and (d) be treated with dignity and respect. However, the descriptions in this article illustrate the gender, race, and class power inequities experienced when technocratic cultural forces conflicted with oppressed women's basic needs for respect and control.

A functional analysis of southern folk beliefs concerning birth

Childbirth is universally recognized as one crisis period in the life cycle and receives varying degrees of interest and emphasis in folk belief; thus in the rural South, while not as widely acknowledged, perhaps, as elsewhere, such beliefs are still much in the folk tradition. Although many of the practices are said to have been fostered by country doctors of the past, apart from the debatable psychological benefits, few, if any, modern physicians would give them clinical credence. However, folk beliefs often function symbolically and thus express many basic values germane to a given culture. The birth beliefs presented here are analyzed in such a context and there emerge several health attitudes plus expressions of such social phenomena as male-female sex roles and the overlap between folk and orthodox medicine.