ResearchThematic Analysis of Women's Perspectives on the Meaning of Safety During Hospital-Based Birth
Section snippets
Design
This qualitative descriptive study used thematic analysis of interviews conducted individually and in small groups with a purposive sample of women residing in the San Francisco Bay Area who had previously given birth in a variety of settings. The study was approved by the institutional review boards at the University of California, San Francisco and Stanford University.
Participants and Settings
Seventeen women ages 29 to 47 years participated: 3 were interviewed individually as the only respondents to the invitation
Safety Experienced as a Continuum
When asked about the meaning of safety, most participants focused on the competence of providers as a key aspect of safety. Many defined safety as a birth in which the woman and newborn are “safe,” “healthy,” or “okay.” A few participants explicitly expanded on this perspective to articulate an emotional component of safety during birth and point out that some aspects of safety, particularly communication, may not be captured by clinical measures. Indeed, one suggested that the acts of
Discussion
We explored women's experiences and understanding of safety during labor and birth in U.S. hospitals. Our participants reported a wide range of types of births: spontaneous vaginal and emergency cesarean births; “easy” births at term; and births complicated by prematurity, fetal distress, and extremely serious maternal complications. Despite the wide variation in how their births unfolded, we found common themes with regard to how participants thought about safety during birth. Participants'
Acknowledgment
Supported by grant number P30HS023506 from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
Audrey Lyndon, PhD, RNC, FAAN, is an associate professor and Chair of the Department of Family Health Care Nursing, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA.
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2021, New Ideas in PsychologyCitation Excerpt :It was found that as contractions intensify and become more painful, women describe their need to be in a place of safety in order to focus on each contraction. In a qualitative study of 17 women, Lyndon et al. (2018) explored what safety means to women in the context of a hospital birth experience. The participants referred to both physical and emotional safety, which are physical and psychological needs.
Audrey Lyndon, PhD, RNC, FAAN, is an associate professor and Chair of the Department of Family Health Care Nursing, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA.
Jennifer Malana, MSN, RN, is a doctoral student in the Department of Family Health Care Nursing, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA.
Laura C. Hedli, MS, is a writer in the Division of Neonatal and Developmental Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA.
Jules Sherman, MFA, is a design consultant in the Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA.
Henry C. Lee, MD, MS, is an associate professor in the Division of Neonatal and Developmental Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA.
The authors report no conflict of interest or relevant financial relationships.