Hello Philomena
My masters dissertation, 'Smoking Pregnancy and Disadvantage: An
Issue of Empowerment' sought to understand smoking and health care
support to quit from the woman's perspective. I conducted in depth
interviews with 20 women in their own homes and at an antenatal
clinic (in Queensland, Australia) and documented the meanings of
smoking in their lives, their experience with midwives and doctors
who try to get them to quit and the women's attempts to make sense of
the complex and conflicting forces to quit and to smoke.
The study shows that it is important to understand the perspectives
of particular individuals and groups. The well meaning intervention
by health practitioners may be reinterpreted by the women according
to her own experience and understanding or as a response to
unconscious material. Health professionals also bring to the
interaction a range of personal, social and cultural knowledges,
assumptions and prejudices that may inhibit effective communication.
The data indicated that the incompatibility between the health care
practitioner's rationality and the woman's rationality can leave both
sides feeling powerless, frustrated, misunderstood or angry.
Issues of power in health care delivery and smoking as a means of
asserting/maintaining control, suggest that power a central issue in
smoking in pregnancy and delivery of cessation support.
I wrote about the implications for practice and guidelines for
smoking in pregnancy support in antenatal care which I can send if
you like.
Jane
>Hi
>I am setting up an educational programme for midwives and early
>childhood nurses re Smoking in Pregnancy----A BRIEF INTERVENTION
>STRATEGY that can be incorporated into routine antenatal and
>postnatal care that will encourage smoking cessation in pregnant
>mothers and other family members as well as reducing the exposure of
>infants to environmental tobacco smoke.
> Any advice, information, programmes available that are
>effective would be appreciated so I do not have to reinvent the
>wheel.
>
> Philomena
>
>
Jane Meltzer
41 Dell Road
St Lucia Q4067
Australia
Phone +617 3870 2090
Fax +617 3870 9997
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