Pregnant Women's Experiences of Social Roles: An Ethnophenomenological Study

Exploring the Experiences of Health-Promoting Behavior in the Workplace among Thai Pregnant Women: A Phenomenological Approach

Background

Inappropriate working conditions during pregnancy can negatively affect health-promoting behaviors and pregnancy outcomes. This study aimed to explore the experiences of health-promoting behavior in the workplace among Thai pregnant women.

Materials and Methods

Giorgi's phenomenological methodology was used, and data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with 21 working-pregnant women in large industries in two regions of Thailand. Data were collected from December 2019 to June 2020. Purposive and snowball sampling were used to recruit pregnant women at 13-42 weeks of gestation. To analyze the data, three steps of Giorgi's phenomenological approach were employed.

Results

The pregnant women described their lived experiences with health-promoting behaviors in the workplace into four major categories. Firstly, "positive attitude toward work in promoting health behaviors" contained three subcategories ("self-discipline," "social interaction," and "self-esteem"). Secondly, the idea that "changing temporary health behaviors is worthwhile for infants" was expressed into two subcategories ("eating adaptation" and "managing negative emotions"). Thirdly, "insufficient support from workplace policy" had three subcategories ("inconvenient accommodations," "inflexible break times," and "lack of healthcare support"). Finally, "negative perception of new work positions" consisted of two subcategories ("stress" and "low self-efficacy").

Conclusions

Positive attitudes toward work and infant health may encourage pregnant women to engage in healthy behaviors, while workplace support and policies are important in promoting healthy behavior and avoiding negative emotions. Health promotion interventions should encourage the value of work, promote maternal-fetal attachment, and increase health support policy to avoid mental health issues and promote healthy behaviors among working-pregnant women.

"Because it eases my Childbirth Plan": a qualitative study on factors contributing to preferences for caesarean section in Thailand

BACKGROUND

Although caesarean section (CS) rates have increased rapidly in Thailand, the upward trend is not supported by significant maternal or perinatal health benefits. The appropriate use of CS through QUALIty DECision-making by women and providers (QUALI-DEC project) aims to design and implement a strategy to optimize the use of CS through non-clinical interventions. This study aimed to explore the factors influencing women's and health professionals' preferences for CS delivery in Thailand.

METHODS

We conducted a formative qualitative study by using semi-structured in-depth interviews with pregnant and postpartum women, and healthcare staff. Purposive sampling was used to recruit participants from eight hospitals across four regions of Thailand. Content analysis was used to develop the main themes.

RESULTS

There were 78 participants, including 27 pregnant and 25 postpartum women, 8 administrators, 13 obstetricians, and 5 interns. We identified three main themes and seven sub-themes of women and healthcare providers' perceptions on CS: (1) avoiding the negative experiences from vaginal birth (the pain of labor and childbirth, uncertainty during the labor period); (2) CS is a safer mode of birth (guarantees the baby's safety, a protective shield for doctors); and (3) CS facilitates time management (baby's destiny at an auspicious time, family's management, manage my work/time).

CONCLUSIONS

Women mentioned negative experiences and beliefs about vaginal delivery, labor pain, and uncertain delivery outcomes as important factors influencing CS preferences. On the other hand, CS is safer for babies and facilitates multiple tasks in women's lives. From health professionals' perspectives, CS is the easier and safer method for patients and them. Interventions to reduce unnecessary CS, including QUALI-DEC, should be designed and implemented, taking into consideration the perceptions of both women and healthcare providers.

Awareness and use of psychosocial care among cancer patients and their relatives-a comparison of people with and without a migration background in Germany

Purpose

We examined how migration background is associated with awareness and usage of psycho-oncology services.

Methods

Oncologists in community-based practices and outpatient clinics asked their patients and their relatives to complete a questionnaire. Migrants were purposely over-sampled. The questionnaire was provided in Arabic, English, Farsi, French, German, Hindi, Kurdish, Pashto, Russian, Somali, Turkish, Urdu, and Vietnamese.

Results

From 9 collaborators, 177 participants were enrolled (130 with and 47 without migration background). The existence of outpatient cancer counselling centres was known to 38% of the participants without and 32% with migration background, self-help groups to 32 vs. 12%, and psychotherapy to 43 vs. 25%. Respondents from the Near and Middle East were less likely to know about psychotherapy (odds ratio (OR) 0.1, p = 0.01); those from the Commonwealth of the Independent States or former Yugoslavia were less often informed about self-help groups (OR 0.1, p = 0.06). Migrants retrieved information less frequently from the internet than non-migrants (10 vs. 25%). At least one service had been used by 27% of migrants and 42% of non-migrants (OR 0.5, p = 0.06). After adjusting for gender, age, education, and patient-relative status, there was no evidence for an association between migration background and service use.

Conclusions

Migrants should be better informed about psychotherapy and self-help groups, in particular the ones coming from the Near or Middle East and the Commonwealth of the Independent States or former Yugoslavia.

The under-use of psychosocial services can largely be explained by confounding factors. Therefore, these factors must always be taken into account when analysing the use of psychosocial services in the aforementioned populations.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00432-022-04091-1.

An Ethno-phenomenological Study of Pregnant Women's Experiences regarding Household Roles

Background

Household labor has been indicated as a feminine role even in the present millennium, in which gender role orientations have been changed. As pregnancy is an important time for studying the division of household labor, this study aimed to discover the meaning of the pregnant women's experiences of household roles.

Methods

An ethno-phenomenological study, in which van Manen approach to phenomenology was its core and focused ethnographic approach was its supplementary component, was used to conduct this study. 25 pregnant women with maximum variation were recruited via the purposeful sampling during 2016-2017 in Mashhad, Iran. In-depth semi-structured interviews, vignette interviews as well as observations were used for data collection. Six-step van Manen's descriptive-interpretive phenomenological approach was used for concurrent data collection and analysis. MAXQDA, version 10, was used for data organization.

Results

Data analysis led to the emergence of an overarching theme entitled: "couples' preservation, keeping up and protection of the household roles". This was derived from two subthemes including the mother's efforts to play the household roles and spouse confrontation with the household chores.

Conclusion

The consequence of all endeavors of pregnant women along with their husbands develops the experience of preserving and maintaining the importance of household roles. As pregnancy is an important period for considering division of household responsibilities, it is necessary to design and implement gender sensitive programs to empower pregnant women and their families as well.