Original articles
Medical termination of pregnancies: Difficulties among midwives
2010 Volume 24 Issue 2 Pages 227-237
Details
2010 Volume 24 Issue 2 Pages 227-237
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to clarify the difficulties experienced by midwives in caregiving for women who had undergone medical termination of pregnancy.
Methods
The study population comprised 9 midwives who had 2-10 years of work experience and had acted as caregiver for women who had undergone medical termination of pregnancy. Data were obtained using tape-recorded semi-structured interviews. The data were transcribed and interpreted: furthermore they were summarized and segregated into categories and subcategories depending on the similarities and differences between the difficulties experienced by the midwives.
Results
We segregated the difficulties experienced by these midwives while caregiving for the mothers into 4 categories: (1) the distress the midwives experienced on taking a fetal life, which was caused by their sense of value for life; (2) the guilt that they experienced due to incomplete caregiving for the mothers; (3) the strained relationship between the midwives and mothers due to incomplete caregiving; (4) the inability to completely fulfill the role of a caregiver. Medical termination of pregnancy involves artificial termination of a fetal life for the midwives. The midwives cannot endure the death of the babies and are at a loss regarding caregiving for the mothers. The sense of incongruity that they experience and the behavior of the distant relatives of the mothers make them hesitate about caregiving for the mothers, and they cannot fulfill their role completely.
Conclusion
The difficulties experienced by midwives while caregiving for mothers who undergo termination of pregnancy include distress due to the fact that they had terminated a fetal life; this distress was due to the midwives' value system that did not support their role in the termination of pregnancy. Because of this, the midwives did not take proper care of the mothers. These 2 issues led to a strained relationship between the midwives and mothers and hampered the ability of the midwives to completely fulfill their role of caregiving.
