A hero's tale of childbirth

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• 作者：Gill Thomson ; BSc ; MSc ; PhD^a ; ^{GThomson@uclan.ac.uk} (Research Fellow) ; Soo Downe ; BSc ; RM ; MSc ; PhD ; OBE^b ; ^{SDowne@uclan.ac.uk} (Professor in Midwifery Studies)
• 关键词：Monomyth ; Campbell ; Childbirth ; Traumatic birth ; Positive birth
• 刊名：Midwifery
• 出版年：2013
• 出版时间：July, 2013
• 年：2013
• 卷：29
• 期：7
• 页码：765-771
• 全文大小：124 K

文摘

Objectives

to present a secondary analysis of the findings from an interpretive phenomenological study of women who had experienced a self-defined traumatic and subsequent positive birth experience.

Design

a re-interpretation of women's accounts through the conceptual lens of the hero narrative framework developed by .

Setting

12 women recruited from a large maternity trust in North-West England.

Findings

by drawing upon Campbell's analysis of myth and folklore, contextualised by the women's narratives, we illuminate the adversity and dysphoria of a distressing birth, and how through taking courage, drawing on inner strength and accessing targeted support, all of the participants went on to achieve a joyful, healing birth experience. This analysis reveals the power, courage and determination of the childbearing women in this study, and to re-envision their journey as a ¡®hero's tale¡¯.

Conclusion

this paper uncovers how myth can illuminate existential accounts of a phenomenon as well as raise important practice based implications. Creating services based on these principles has the potential to translate the theoretical insights from this study into a new maternity care praxis.