Description:
Premature birth presents challenges for most mothers assuming a parenting role with their infant. Living in rural and regional areas provides additional hardship due to isolation, distances and limited support services. The predominant focus of research in the area of premature birth has been on the survival of infants. There has been limited investigation of the experiences of women with infants in special care nurseries (SCNs), in regional Australia. The ways in which mothers ‘navigate their way’, physically and emotionally, in SCN environments was the focus of this study. Using a qualitative interpretive design data were collected through in-depth interviews with mothers and analysed thematically. Women related a dislocation in their lives as a result of their infant’s hospitalisation. The nursery space and the various ways space was used to marginalise or sanction mothers was revealed and resulted in women adopting conflicting roles throughout this time. These findings provide direction for developing more supportive environments for parents relying on SCNs for the care of their infant. This study provides new insight into the experiences of women and their environmental sensitivity within SCN settings. Findings will increase regional midwives’ understanding of mothers’ interpretations of the neonatal nursery environment. Insights into maternal perspectives will assist in the provision of better family-centred care and improved outcomes for the vulnerable families of premature infants.
Description:
Premature birth presents challenges for most mothers assuming a parenting role with their infant. Living in rural and regional areas provides additional hardship due to isolation, distances and limited support services. The predominant focus of research in the area of premature birth has been on the survival of infants. There has been limited investigation of the experiences of women with infants in special care nurseries (SCNs), in regional Australia. The ways in which mothers ‘navigate their way’, physically and emotionally, in SCN environments was the focus of this study. Using a qualitative interpretive design data were collected through in-depth interviews with mothers and analysed thematically. Women related a dislocation in their lives as a result of their infant’s hospitalisation. The nursery space and the various ways space was used to marginalise or sanction mothers was revealed and resulted in women adopting conflicting roles throughout this time. These findings provide direction for developing more supportive environments for parents relying on SCNs for the care of their infant. This study provides new insight into the experiences of women and their environmental sensitivity within SCN settings. Findings will increase regional midwives’ understanding of mothers’ interpretations of the neonatal nursery environment. Insights into maternal perspectives will assist in the provision of better family-centred care and improved outcomes for the vulnerable families of premature infants.
Description:
"Improved survival rates for premature infants have resulted in extended hospital stays in neonatal nurseries with consequent challenges for mothers assuming a parental role. Additionally, maternal medical complications associated with surgical birth, and a need to locate themselves in unfamiliar clinical environments, exacerbate women's experiences and transition to a maternal role competes with other roles at this time. For women living in rural and regional areas, who experience premature birth, there is additional hardship due to isolation, distance and limited support services. There has been little research on women's experiences with infants in special care nurseries in regional Australia."--(leaf ii).
Description:
"Improved survival rates for premature infants have resulted in extended hospital stays in neonatal nurseries with consequent challenges for mothers assuming a parental role. Additionally, maternal medical complications associated with surgical birth, and a need to locate themselves in unfamiliar clinical environments, exacerbate women's experiences and transition to a maternal role competes with other roles at this time. For women living in rural and regional areas, who experience premature birth, there is additional hardship due to isolation, distance and limited support services. There has been little research on women's experiences with infants in special care nurseries in regional Australia."--(leaf ii).
Description:
One hundred and forty-nine women were recruited in Ballarat during the third trimester of their pregnancy, and systematically assigned to treatment and control conditions, to assess the effect of midwife-led postnatal debriefing on psychological variables.
Description:
One hundred and forty-nine women were recruited in Ballarat during the third trimester of their pregnancy, and systematically assigned to treatment and control conditions, to assess the effect of midwife-led postnatal debriefing on psychological variables.
Description:
Becoming a mother is cataclysmic. It is experienced in a myriad of ways but always the act signals change. As an academic, I turned to words, thoughts, and ideas to help me understand what I felt to be a complete and sometimes terrifying transformation of maternity. I found a copy of Adrienne Rich’s Of Woman Born and read it. Rich’s descriptions of the joys of mothering as well as her honest and critical insights into the institution of motherhood spoke about her journey into maternity. She was also speaking parts of my story of mothering. At the time that I discovered Rich’s maternal writings, I had completed a project on the “bold new territory” of cyberspace. Having enjoyed the fiery feminism of the geekgirls, grrrls, and other activists as well as being excited by Rich’s work, I turned to cyberspace, hungry for stories of mothering. What I found intriguing in this domain was the comingling of convention and subversion, and the enormous possibility for change. In the hope of finding representations of maternal bodies going beyond the normative images, I looked to an investigation of the cyber-realm and the potential of this domain to overturn dominant discourses of motherhood. "From chapter"
Description:
Young mothers’ stories of motherhood are often invisible within the broader contexts of society, and young mothers may themselves be negatively affected by and unable to resist dominant cultural narratives circulated about them. Early motherhood manifests itself as a problem and social concern in academic literature policy and public discourses (Arai; Breheny and Stephens). Much of it invariably details the negative outcomes faced by young mothers, including poor parenting skills, health issues, welfare dependency, and lower educational attainment with little opportunity for future employability, which exacerbates their likelihood of living in poverty (Keegan and Corliss). Community judgment invariably considers young.