The professional literature reflects limited awareness of and/or concern for the effects of incarceration on the physical and psychological dimensions of childbearing. The purpose of this study was to describe the childbearing experience as reported by pregnant incarcerated women. Giorgi's phenomenological method was used. Apprehension, grief, subjugation, and relatedness were the essential themes related to the experience of childbearing in prison which emerged from the analysis of the transcripts of the journal entries and interview data. Incarceration was the fulcrum on which the women's pregnancy experiences balanced. Rapidly rising numbers of women imprisoned in the United States underscore the urgency to better understand their experiences. Health care providers must find ways to help female inmates cope more effectively with the role diffusion/confusion they experience as they live two diametrically opposing roles--those of inmate and mother. Correctional facilities must also be assisted in establishing policies that recognize the unique needs of pregnant incarcerated women.
Selected nursing theories about the childbearing experience are examined as they apply to the assessment of the pregnant lesbian couple. A review of the women's health literature suggests that the lesbian pregnancy experience is characterized by the use of donor insemination, social discrimination and a dependence on peer rather than family networks for social support. Based on these sociocultural constraints, the authors propose that the lesbian couple is faced with greater barriers than are heterosexual parents to achieving the developmental tasks of "safe passage" and acceptance by others of the pregnancy. Future research should document how a lesbian identity affects the pregnant woman's relationship with her mother, her partner's psychosocial development as a parent and the maternal-infant attachment process. Nursing guidelines for assessing parental role development are presented.
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