Exploring Respect During Childbirth among Nurses, Women and their Families

• Author / Creator

  Johnson, Leanne C.

• Background: Childbirth is a transitional moment in a person’s life. In Canada, most women give birth in a hospital supported by labour and birth nurses. Respectful maternity care have been revealed as a global concern, yet there is limited research on what respectful care means within the context of nursing practice.
  Purpose: The purpose of this research is to explore the culture of respectful care as experienced by nurses, women who recently gave birth and their families within the context of patient and family centered care.
  Method: A focused ethnography was conducted utilizing interviews, observations, and review of relevant documents. Semi-structured interviews with nine labour and birth nurses, thirteen perinatal women and one partner were completed.
  
  Results: Four themes emerged: creating space for respectful relationships; shifting autonomy amid pain and vulnerability; navigating relationships with colleagues; and nursing in the middle of competing roles and responsibilities. Creating space involves building a collaborative relationship with a birthing person, supporting their family, and responding to diversity. Shifting autonomy reflects the changes in autonomy in both the birthing person during the birth process and in the nursing role. Navigating relationships among colleagues focuses on the importance of reciprocal respect. Lastly, nursing in the middle highlights how competing roles and responsibilities can impact the nurses ability to provide respectful care.
  Conclusion: Providing respectful care during childbirth is essential to safe, high quality nursing care. Nursing care is influenced by other healthcare professionals, the culture of the unit, and the organization. Respectful interactions between all healthcare professionals is necessary to support respectful care for all.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • nurse
  • respect
  • childbirth

• Graduation date

  Spring 2022

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Doctor of Philosophy

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-e817-h527

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.