Scientific article OCT 2020
Women and partners’ experiences of critical perinatal events: a qualitative study
Authors:
- Laura Emdal Navne
- Stinne Høgh
- Marianne Johansen
- Mette Nordahl Svendsen
- Jette Led Sørensen
Management and implementation
Children, Adolescents and Families
Health Care
Management and implementation, Children, Adolescents and Families, Health Care
Objective: The aim of this study was to explore women and partners’ experiences following critical perinatal events.
Design: This is a qualitative interview study. We conducted semistructured individual interviews with women and their partners in separate rooms. Interviews were analysed
thematically and validated by a transdisciplinary group of anthropologists, obstetricians and a midwife.
Setting: Department of obstetrics at a tertiary referral university hospital in Denmark.
Participants: Women and partners who had experienced a critical perinatal event within the past 3–12 months.
Results: We conducted 17 interviews and identified three main themes: (1) ambivalence towards medicalisation, (2) the extended temporality of a critical birth and (3) postnatal
loss of attention from healthcare professionals. Overall, participants expressed a high degree of trust in and quality of provided healthcare during the critical perinatal events.
They experienced medicalisation (obstetric interventions) as a necessity, linking them to the safety of the child and their new role as responsible parents. However, some
women experienced disempowerment when healthcare professionals overlooked their ability to stay actively involved during birth events. Postnatally, women and their
partners experienced shortages of healthcare professional resources, absent healthcare and lack of attention.
Conclusions: Women and their partners’ experiences of critical perinatal events begin long before and end long after the actual moment of childbirth, challenging
conventional ideas about the birth as being the pivotal event in making families. In future healthcare planning, it is important to to align expectations and guide parental
involvement in birth events and to acknowledge the postnatal period as equally crucial.
Design: This is a qualitative interview study. We conducted semistructured individual interviews with women and their partners in separate rooms. Interviews were analysed
thematically and validated by a transdisciplinary group of anthropologists, obstetricians and a midwife.
Setting: Department of obstetrics at a tertiary referral university hospital in Denmark.
Participants: Women and partners who had experienced a critical perinatal event within the past 3–12 months.
Results: We conducted 17 interviews and identified three main themes: (1) ambivalence towards medicalisation, (2) the extended temporality of a critical birth and (3) postnatal
loss of attention from healthcare professionals. Overall, participants expressed a high degree of trust in and quality of provided healthcare during the critical perinatal events.
They experienced medicalisation (obstetric interventions) as a necessity, linking them to the safety of the child and their new role as responsible parents. However, some
women experienced disempowerment when healthcare professionals overlooked their ability to stay actively involved during birth events. Postnatally, women and their
partners experienced shortages of healthcare professional resources, absent healthcare and lack of attention.
Conclusions: Women and their partners’ experiences of critical perinatal events begin long before and end long after the actual moment of childbirth, challenging
conventional ideas about the birth as being the pivotal event in making families. In future healthcare planning, it is important to to align expectations and guide parental
involvement in birth events and to acknowledge the postnatal period as equally crucial.
Authors
About this publication
Published in
BMJ Open
