Consensual Non-Monogamous Parenting Couples’ Perceptions of Healthcare Providers during the Transition to Parenthood

Abstract

Consensual non-monogamous parenting couples are at increased risk for health inequities, especially during the transition to parenthood. This article presents partial results of a more extensive mixed-methods study exploring the conciliation of these couples’ parenting role and their sexual lifestyle, more specifically, their perceptions of health care providers including nurses. Semi-structured interviews and online questionnaires were completed with a total of 6 participants. Positive and negative issues were identified that were clients- and health care providers-based. The Expanding the Movement for Empowerment and Reproductive Justice lens was used to discuss the positive and negative consequences. Nurses need to develop, implement and evaluate a different clinical approach with these couples, who are aware of the health risks associated with their lifestyle, yet they always put their families first. Nurse administrators need to assess their institutional policies that are based on hetero-mononormative assumptions.

Parenting Consensual Non-Monogamists’ Perceptions of Parenthood, Intimacy, and Communication

“…A brief overview of the methodology is presented here as it was previously published by Avanthay Strus and Polomeno in 2021 (14).…”

Lefebvre's production of space: Implications for nursing

“…normative framework (Avanthay Strus & Polomeno, 2021;Beebeejaun, 2017;Darwin & Greenfield, 2019). This may occur in public health messaging, where the nuclear family structure is central to a call for adopting behaviours prescribed therein, such as a message that beckons you to 'do it for your kids'.…”

“…The ordering of space or, at the very least, the illusion of an orderly space in health care settings and research protocols prioritizes and normalizes certain behaviours and people. Although the discourse on space is changing, the accounts of gender and sexual minorities say otherwise (Arseneau et al, 2019; Avanthay Strus, 2019; Avanthay Strus & Polomeno, 2021; Darwin & Greenfield, 2019; Landry & Kensler, 2019).…”

“…For instance, the spaces produced in health care contexts and within academia continue to have a limited discourse that reinforces the binary categorization of men and women, along with their sexual orientations. In essence, the space produced in these settings continues to be influenced by and centred on a hetero(mono)normative framework (Avanthay Strus & Polomeno, 2021; Beebeejaun, 2017; Darwin & Greenfield, 2019). This may occur in public health messaging, where the nuclear family structure is central to a call for adopting behaviours prescribed therein, such as a message that beckons you to ‘do it for your kids’.…”

“…In other words, reproductive rights are embodied, lived and subjective. Assumptions made about subjective positions, can lead to unwanted attention (Andersen et al, 2017; Avanthay Strus & Polomeno, 2021).…”