Journal of Woman and Family Studies
Women's Lived Experience of Emotional Bonding with Their Husbands and Successful Vaginal Delivery: A Phenomenological Study
Document Type : Research/Original/Regular
Authors
1 Department of Social Sciences, Faculty of Law and Humanities, Kashan University, Kashan, Iran.
2 Assisatant prof. Department of Social Sciences, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Sistan and Baluchestan University,Zahedan,Iran
Abstract
Childbirth is one of the most important events in women's lives and a bridge for them to enter the maternal stage and accept a new role in the family. Due to the need to promote natural childbirth in the country, in this study, women's lived experience of the emotional link between wife and husband and successful natural delivery studied using the phenomenological methodology and in-depth interviews. Twelve participants were selected from among Tehran's first-born women by purposeful sampling. In this study, according to qualitative and phenomenological research, the sample size was determined based on the theoretical saturation criterion to achieve the research goal and lake of new information's appearance. The collected data analyzed by the Colaizzi method. This study's central theme is the spouse's emotional role in vaginal delivery, which is extracted from three sub-themes of the spouse's positive emotional attitude about natural childbirth, spouse's emotional participation during birth, and spouse's emotional protection after delivery. It seems that the emotional connection between husband and wife in this during can create a more pleasant experience of birth in women and increase women's desire for a natural birth. Indeed, Childbirth is a process that begins with the choice of the type of delivery, and it continues until the full recovery of women after childbirth. The emotional interaction of spouses plays an essential role in the passage of this stage and women's lived experience.
Highlights
This study indicates that the emotional bond in couples in the delivery process begins with the husband's positive emotional attitude before childbirth. Communicating this attitude can lead to women choosing vaginal delivery and can play a motivating role in creating a positive feeling of vaginal delivery in women. These positive emotional attitudes in men are formed through society.
Another extracted theme is the emotional engagement of the husband during vaginal delivery; the presence and involvement of the husband during birth play a vital role in reducing pain, duration of delivey, and having a satisfactory experience of childbirth. In addition, husbands show their emotional engagement by encouraging, complimenting, and reassuring their wives, and their presence at the time of delivery is crucial. According to Collins (2004), the emotional energy developed in the relationship can produce positive feelings, such as assertiveness and self-confidence. Even this positive energy can have such a positive, motivating effect on a person that he or she wants to re-experience these positive feelings. Also, in vaginal delivery, the husband's emotional interaction of the couple can create positive emotional energy and cause a pleasant experience and positive emotions in women (Emeloneym, 2016). In addition, the husband's emotional presence and engagement in birth and the emotional support for women consolidate the couple's relationship and increases the responsibility of men to enter into the parenthood stage (Pestvenidze 2007).
Another theme extracted from the interviews is the emotional support of the husband after a delivery. This emotional support can transmit positive and pleasant emotions to women in the critical stage after childbirth. Its various dimensions include women's physical changes accepting, limitations of women after vaginal delivery, expressing satisfaction with successful childbirth, and emotional attention to women after childbirth. This emotional support can transmit positive and pleasant emotions to women in the critical stage after childbirth (Kızılırmak 2020 , Bohren, 2017). Women are often confused by entering the sensitive stage of motherhood and the increasing importance of the nutritional and care needs of the infant in the first months after birth. Thus, husbands' understanding of women's situation and their emotional support for their wives in passing this stage also seems very important and necessary.
Keywords
Main Subjects
Extended Abstract
Background and purpose
Childbirth is one of the most important events in women's life and a bridge by which they enter into the motherhood stage and accept a new role in the family. One of the most critical aspects of the childbirth experience is emotional support for the wife and couple's interaction from pregnancy to recovery and after birth. Emotional support and connection are very important in a successful birth and enable women to go through childbirth more easily, and comfort and accompany give them the power to tolerate the pain of delivery. In addition to the importance of emotional support, personal characteristics are also important. Women prefer someone to be there during their childbirth who is familiar and close to them (Lunda 2018, Pirdel 2009). Among these persons, men have a significant role in creating a sense of pleasant experience, and women want their husbands to be present during and process of birth and engage in this process. While emotional support for women during childbirth is highly emphasized in many developed countries, but in developing societies, the quality of clinical and medical services is not optimal and less attention paid to the quality of care, women's right to enjoying a positive and pleasant childbirth experience, and the husband's emotional support as an influencing factor in this experience (Perkins 2019, Pascali-Bonaro 2003, Kaye 2014, Melo 2013). In recent years, there have been positive attempts toward increasing the participation of men in the birth process in Iran.
Method
The present study aims to understand women's lived experiences of successful vaginal delivery and its related meanings using the descriptive phenomenology method. Among the women living in Tehran, twelve women who had at least six months of vaginal delivery were selected through the purposive sampling method. The sample size was determined based on the quality of the collected information until the theoretical saturation. we used an in-depth interview to collect data. Researchers interviewed women for About 45 minutes. Then, Colaizzi's method was applied for data analysis.
Results
The final theme discovered in the present study is the emotional role of the husband in wife's successful vaginal delivery. These themes have three sub-themes: "husband's Positive emotional attitude towards vaginal delivey," "husband's emotional engagement during childbirth", and "husband's postpartum emotional support." Women emphasized emotional interaction and bonding with their husbands in childbirth, which is very important before, during, and after childbirth. Attention must be paid to all these three aspects.
Table 1.
Analysis of the main and sub-themes of the emotional role of the husband in wife's successful vaginal delivery
|
Initial themes |
Sub-themes |
Main theme |
|
Encouraging the wife to go through a vaginal delivery / The level of husband's awareness of vaginal delivery and its stages / The level of the husband's study about vaginal delivery / Husband's negative mentality spouse about C-section/ Husband family of origins' positive attitude toward vaginal delivery/ |
Husband's positive emotional attitude toward vaginal delivery |
Husband's emotional role in a successful vaginal delivery |
|
Reducing fear of childbirth with the presence of the husband / Reassuring the wife during childbirth / The role of southing the wife during childbirth / Reducing stress by the company of the husband / Increasing self-confidence by the company of the husband/ Lack of feeling of loneliness during childbirth/ Massage and assistance during childbirth / Increasing the self-confidence |
Husband's emotional engagement during childbirth |
|
|
Emotional attention after childbirth/ Husband's satisfaction with successful childbirth / Acceptance of wife's physical changes after childbirth / Husband's understanding of sex after vaginal delivery/ Emotional support for the wife after childbirth / Recognizing and Responding to wife's emotional needs after childbirth |
Husband's emotional support of his wife after childbirth |
Conclusion
This study indicates that the emotional bond in couples in the delivery process begins with the husband's positive emotional attitude before childbirth. Communicating this attitude can lead to women choosing vaginal delivery and can play a motivating role in creating a positive feeling of vaginal delivery in women. These positive emotional attitudes in men are formed through society.
Another extracted theme is the emotional engagement of the husband during vaginal delivery; the presence and involvement of the husband during birth play a vital role in reducing pain, duration of delivey, and having a satisfactory experience of childbirth. In addition, husbands show their emotional engagement by encouraging, complimenting, and reassuring their wives, and their presence at the time of delivery is crucial. According to Collins (2004), the emotional energy developed in the relationship can produce positive feelings, such as assertiveness and self-confidence. Even this positive energy can have such a positive, motivating effect on a person that he or she wants to re-experience these positive feelings. Also, in vaginal delivery, the husband's emotional interaction of the couple can create positive emotional energy and cause a pleasant experience and positive emotions in women (Emeloneym, 2016). In addition, the husband's emotional presence and engagement in birth and the emotional support for women consolidate the couple's relationship and increases the responsibility of men to enter into the parenthood stage (Pestvenidze 2007).
Another theme extracted from the interviews is the emotional support of the husband after a delivery. This emotional support can transmit positive and pleasant emotions to women in the critical stage after childbirth. Its various dimensions include women's physical changes accepting, limitations of women after vaginal delivery, expressing satisfaction with successful childbirth, and emotional attention to women after childbirth. This emotional support can transmit positive and pleasant emotions to women in the critical stage after childbirth (Kızılırmak 2020 , Bohren, 2017). Women are often confused by entering the sensitive stage of motherhood and the increasing importance of the nutritional and care needs of the infant in the first months after birth. Thus, husbands' understanding of women's situation and their emotional support for their wives in passing this stage also seems very important and necessary.
Ethical Considerations
Compliance with ethical guidelines
This study was conducted following the ethical codes of human research.
Funding: The authors declare that any organization or institution did not sponsor this study.
Authors’ contribution: Fatemeh Hami Kargar was the corresponding author, and Elham Shirdel was the second author.
Conflict of interest: The authors declare that they have no conflicting interests.
Acknowledgments: Researchers appreciate participants' contributions to the research.
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