The birth environment : mothers' and fathers' lived experiences

Abstract

The birth environment has a powerful impact on the mother and those with her during labour. An increasing amount of research is bringing to light fathers’ birth experiences. Fathers provide support to most women during labour therefore, their experience of the birth environment is also crucial. This study aimed to explore both mothers' and fathers' lived experiences of the birth environment. Objectives were set to explore how the physical, psychosocial, spiritual and cultural environment during labour, influences the parents' birth experience, and to delve into the similarities and differences between mothers' and fathers' views and experiences of the birth environment. Experiences of the birth environment at home during early labour and at hospital, in labour and during a normal vaginal birth were studied. The study adopted a hermeneutic phenomenological research design. A purposive homogenous sample of seven couples was recruited from the local public hospital. The method of data collection was a one-time, face-to-face, semi-structured interview. Interviews were carried out with the couple together. The birth territory theory by Fahy (2008) guided this study. Data was analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis as described by Smith, Flowers and Larkin (2009). Three super-ordinate themes emerged from the data; ‘the home-hospital gap’, ‘midwifery care’ and ‘movement in labour’. A conflict between the comfort of home and homelike aesthetics, and the reassuring, but foreign, clinical environment and medical equipment, was felt by mothers and fathers. Movement in labour was important to mothers. Fathers became more involved in the labour when mothers were mobile during labour. The birth environment consisted of facilitating and impeding factors to movement, which influenced the parents’ experiences. The midwife was a fundamental part of the birth environment, taking precedence over the physical environment. The midwife’s role should go beyond the care of the mother to involve and support the father too. Mothers and fathers experienced the birth environment from different perspectives however, they have indicated similar needs and desires from the birth environment, creating a shared experience. Recommendations for improvements to the local birth environment, midwifery practice and further research were made.