Positive support and negative support from medical staff which perinatal women experienced

Abstract

Purpose
This study is designed to categorize and define medical support, which has been experienced by perinatal women, into positive and negative factors and to weigh the positive against the negative, by using the concepts of the positive support and negative support in social support. And the analysis of this study leads finally to what elements are needed for the medical staffs in order to help their support become positive support.
Method
The subjects of this study are six women who participate in mothers' class organized by the hospital which has consented to cooperating for the research. They do not have the basic disease which would be aggravated by pregnancy complications and pregnancy itself. The date are collected by using semi-structured interviews, which were held at the following three stages; the 32nd week of the pregnancy, 5th day after delivery, and one month after delivery. As raw data are converted into transcribed data, the date are compiled and analyzed inductively and descriptively by the method of content analysis.
Results
As a result of the analysis in the perinatal period, the types of positive supports, which are provided by medical staff, can be categorized into“sympathetic support”, “screening purpose”, “mother-model support”, “offering of a field where a perinatal woman can talk to specialists and group together”. The types of negative supports can be different in each perinatal term as follows: 1) Pregnancy period “medical comments without acknowledging the presence of the client”, “deficiently sympathetic care”; 2) Delivery period-“ one-sided medical act”, “emotionally repressed situation”; 3) Hospitalization period-“impersonalized correspondence”, “intrusive medical justice”, “provision of information hindering voluntary decision”; 4) the period of one month after delivery-“medical comments without acknowledging-the presence of the client”, “lack of sympathy”.
Conclusion
It becomes clear that negative support has occurred even between the perinatal woman and the medical staff. With the analysis of factors in both negative and positive support, it is considered that the achievement of effective support intended by the medical staff are significantly involved with whether support is truly demanded by perinatal people and how medical staffs recognize the influence of their support.