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The experience of high-risk pregnancy
1Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH 45229-3039.
Objective:
To describe the experience of high-risk pregnancy from the perspectives of mothers and fathers.
Design:
A naturalistic inquiry using selected grounded-theory techniques.
Setting:
Interviews occurred within the hospital.
Participants:
A sample of 21 parents who experienced high-risk pregnancy and the birth of a preterm infant.
Main Outcome Measures:
Responses and management of responses to high-risk pregnancy.
Results:
Emotional responses to high-risk pregnancy were (a)vulnerability--the realization that pregnancy outcome was at risk, (b)heightened anxiety--the transition from normal activities to bed rest and hospitalization, and (c)inevitability--the imminent premature delivery of an infant with a guarded prognosis.
Conclusions:
These findings have relevance for perinatal nurses. Nurses who have knowledge of the emotional responses parents experience during high-risk pregnancy can provide supportive care to these individuals.