A qualitative Study on women’s experiences of Intrapartum Care at Tamale Teaching Hospital, Ghana.

Abstract

Introduction: Labor and delivery process is an exciting, anxiety-provoking, but rewarding time for a woman and her family after successful delivery of a newborn. The intrapartum period is the time where mothers expect more care. Taking care of a mother through delivery with no side effects is the task of a professional midwife who is trained with the skill to take the responsibility of caring for mothers and babies. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore mother’s experiences regarding quality of intrapartum nursing/midwifery care. Methods: Focused ethnographic study was employed. Data were collected from May to June 2016 TTH, Ghana using semi structured interview guide. Purposive sampling was employed to recruit 20 participants. Eight individual interviews were conducted in the post natal ward after 48 hours of delivery, followed by three focus group discussions two weeks after delivery when mothers visited post natal clinic. Interviews lasted for about 30-45 minutes during each session. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Results: The average age of women were 29 years with ranging from 19-43 years. Participants’ experiences of nursing/midwifery care during birth were influenced by reception and respect, provision of information, technical skill, providers’ behavior, pain management and availability of nurses/midwives. Conclusion: The study findings have revealed that women’s experience of care is affected by a wide range of determinants. Therefore, maternal health programs and policies in Ghana must take into account women’s perspective on the care they need and their feedback on services they receive. Nursing education should re-enforce communication/relational skills.

Women’s experiences of midwifery care immediately before and after caesarean section deliveries at a public Hospital in the Western Region of Ghana

“…They highlighted the importance of midwives showing interest in their wellbeing, and providing clear explanations to procedures. This is in line with prior studies where women reported being satisfied with the information they received from midwives [7, 47] and recommended that effective communication and relational skills of healthcare personnel are major determinants of trust between care providers and women [7, 47]. Midwives need to be more proactive in the provision of information and explanations to procedures to ensure effective and cooperative maternity care, as some participants, particularly those who underwent emergency CS were distraught with the inadequate provision of information about the surgical procedure.…”

“…Childbirth remains a uniquely multifaceted, mentally-cognitive and a major life experience to women [7, 8]. It is composed of a variety of psychosocial and emotional aspects and creates memories, sometimes bad experiences and unmet expectations which may leave the mother with memories for life [8].…”

Perception of Childbirth Experiences of Japanese Women in Bali, Indonesia: A Qualitative Study

“…Migrants,around the world, generally have negative experiences with maternalcare in their new countries. Previous studies have reported that migrant women in developing countries usuallydo not receive timely, appropriate or high-quality maternal health care [15][16][17]. A systematic and comparative review of immigrant and non-immigrant women'sexperiences of maternity care, identi ed that immigrant women were less positive about the care they received than non-immigrant womenbecause of reasons such ascommunication problems and lack of familiarity with care systems [18].…”

Challenges Experienced by Midwives Working in Rural Communities of the Bongo District in the Upper East Region of Ghana. A Qualitative Study

“…In spite of the important role midwives play in maternal health care in rural settings, few or no study has been carried out or documented about the perspectives of midwives working in rural and deprived areas of northern Ghana with regards to the challenges they experience in providing midwifery care, or what support and systems are needed to ensure that rural childbearing women and their newborns are provided with the highest attainable standard of digni ed and respectful midwifery care. Most of the previous research studies carried out in the study setting were focused on the experiences of mothers utilising skilled birth care [12,13,14,15]. This study was aimed at exploring and describing the challenges experienced by midwives providing midwifery care in rural northern Ghana.…”