Women's Health and Society Seminar. 16.30 - 18.00 Wednesday 7th December in room 3.146 FWB  

Preparing for birth with anxiety or confidence? Themes from a feasibility study for a trial of massage and childbirth.

The motivation for this study arose from our research and discussions with women and midwives about their experiences of childbirth. Many women found labour in hospital a frightening experience and felt unsupported in important ways. In such a situation, their ability to cope with pain and with the demands of labour was limited, and many needed epidural pain relief. Midwives and midwifery students were concerned about the effects of rising epidural rates, and their loss of skills to support women in childbirth. We were also interested, theoretically, in the complex interplay between physiology, environment (physical, social and cultural) and emotions in childbirth. Knowledge of history, and of birth in different cultures, along with basic physiological research, led us to hypothesise that the use of massage might have positive benefits and we planned a randomised controlled trial to test its effects. In order to design such a ‘controlled’ intervention study effectively, it was important to undertake detailed groundwork using a range of research methodologies. As part of our initial feasibility study, we interviewed women and their birth partners who participated, 6 weeks after birth. This presentation will focus on the themes arising from those interviews, and from observation work conducted by the research midwife. I will discuss the complexity of the issues we needed to consider, arising from those themes, and which were built into our subsequent study design. Among these were women’s worries or fears about birth, and those of her partner, and how confidence can be built.


Co-researchers in the study:
Linda Kimber, research midwife, Horton Hospital, Banbury
Anne Haines, midwifery manager, Horton Hospital, Banbury
Mary McNabb, senior lecturer in midwifery, St. Georges Hospital
Peter Brocklehurst, Director, National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit

And with thanks to Trixie Webb, research midwife at Northwick Park Hospital and research associate at TVU, who worked with me on the interview study and analysis.

The feasibility study was supported by grants from:
Sir Halley Stewart Trust
Tesco Mother and baby

Bio:

Chris McCourt is Reader in Maternity, Health and Social Science in the Centre for research in Midwifery and Childbirth (CeMaC), Thames Valley University, where she is also Head of the Graduate School. With a background in Anthropology, she has conducted research over the last ten years in the field of women’s experience of childbirth, organisation and reform of maternity services.