Content area
Full Text
Abstract:
This article reports on a phenomenological study, which includes the stories of a women who had a homebirth after a previous hospital birth. Their stories were gathered through in-depth, semi-structured interviews and analyzed to examine the common themes. The major themes that emerged across all participants were: a) respect/autonomy vs. disrespect/coercion, b) trust vs. distrust, c) accomplishment vs. failure, d) empowerment vs. power struggle/powerless, e) allies vs. adversaries, and f) satisfaction vs. dissatisfaction. It is suggested that the benefit of a healthy birth event to offspring, fathers, partners, and families may be due to the psychological experience of birthing women.
Keywords: childbirth, psychological aspects, midwife, homebirth
Stories of child birthing experiences can be found easily in contemporary global societies and indeed in a rich history of narration through the ages. More recently, researchers have explored women's lasting memories to understand a mother's subsequent psychological well-being, as well as her successful bonding with her child following the birthing experience. A mounting body of research has challenged the choice of hospital birth indicating that the midwifery model of care may provide the more appropriate choice for most childbearing women.
Despite some overlap, there are two models of maternity care: the medical model and the midwifery model (Merg, 2009). The medical model perspective is that the risks of childbirth require active medical management and intervention (Cragin & Kennedy, 2006). The midwifery model perspective is that childbirth is a normal physiological process, which works best when there is the least interference (Citizens for Midwifery, 2005; International Confederation of Midwives, 2012).
Births in the United States in the early 20th century primarily took place in homes attended by midwives (Harper, 2005). In 2008, 99% of births occurred in hospitals (Martin et al., 2010). Only 8% of all births were attended by midwives; of those midwife-attended births, 9 of 10 occurred in hospitals. Considering rates of intervention, morbidity, and mortality, midwives have equivalent, if not better, outcomes for mothers and babies (Janssen et al., 2009).
The examples used in scholarly literature revealed that women receiving continuous labor support, which is typical of the midwifery model of care, were less likely to be dissatisfied or report negative birth experiences (Hodnett, Gates, Hofmeyr, Sakala, & Weston, 201 1). Women were less...