1.
Berg, Marie, 1955
(author)
Genuine Caring in Caring for the Genuine : Childbearing and high risk as experienced by women and midwives
2002
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
The experience of pregnancy and childbirth is a central life event with special implications for women at high risk. This thesis describes the meaning of pregnancy, childbirth and midwifery care in four qualitative interview studies based on the lifeworld theory. Women were interviewed during pregnancy and within one week after childbirth. Midwives were interviewed concerning midwifery care for women at high risk. In an intervention study, childbirth experience as reported through a post partum questionnaire was compared between women receiving standard care and women who had formulated a birth plan preceded by a questionnaire on their expectations and feelings about childbirth.The findings emphasise that childbearing women at high risk live in an extremely vulnerable situation. The vulnerability is obvious in the use of an individual birth plan, where negative feelings become more frequent in women at high risk than in those with normal pregnancy and childbirth. During pregnancy the women feel a moral commitment towards the child, including feelings of objectification and of exaggerated responsibility. During an obstetrically complicated childbirth the essential meaning is the women’s desire to be recognised and affirmed as individual persons. Like women with normal pregnancy and childbirth, they need an emotionally present midwife who sees, give trust and supports.Good midwifery care of childbearing women at high risk is synthesised as "genuine caring in caring for the genuine". The ethos of caring constitutes the basis of caring. Women’s transition during pregnancy and childbirth is described as a genuinely natural process. Midwives have a special responsibility to encourage and preserve this process within women at high risk. The caring relationship is the core and the most essential tool in the care. Distinctive features in the midwifery care are embodied knowledge, physical as well as emotional presence, sensitivity, a mutual dialogue including shared control between midwife and woman, and confirmation and support of the genuine in each woman. The midwifery care is a struggle and a balance between natural and medical perspectives.
2.
Martin, Lene, et al.
(author)
Visual function in young adults following intrauterine growth retardation
2004
In: J Pediatr Ophthalmol Strabismus. - : SLACK, Inc.. ; 41:4, s. 212-8
Journal article (peer-reviewed) abstract
BACKGROUND: Intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) resulting in infants born small for gestational age is a known risk factor for neurologic deficits and may predispose to poor cognitive development later in life. We recently found an association between IUGR and a reduced neuroretinal rim area at 18 years of age. We evaluated the possible association between IUGR and visual function. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: We studied 26 subjects who had been born small for gestational age and 20 subjects whose birth weights were appropriate for gestational age (controls) using letter acuity thresholds, color vision testing, full-threshold frequency doubling technology perimetry, and rarebit perimetry at 18 years of age. gestational age had a rarebit hit rate below the normal range as compared with none of the controls (P = .006). These 8 subjects had a significantly smaller rim-disc ratio compared with the subjects who were small for gestational age who had a normal rarebit hit rate (P = .047). The frequency doubling technology indices did not differ significantly between the control group and the group that was small for gestational age, nor did the visual acuity, refraction, and color vision test results. CONCLUSION: These data indicate that IUGR is associated with an increased rate of impaired visual function, which can be detected by using rarebit perimetry but not frequency doubling technology perimetry, visual acuity, or color vision tests.
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Räihä, Niels, et al.
(author)
Letters to the editor.
2004
In: Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition - Jpgn. - : Elsevier BV. - 1536-4801. ; 18:4, s. 453-453
Journal article (other academic/artistic)
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Wendt, Eva, et al.
(author)
Trust and confirmation in a gynecologic examination situation : A critical incident technique analysis
2004
In: Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica. - Copenhagen : Blackwell. - 0001-6349 .- 1600-0412. ; 83, s. 1208-15
Journal article (peer-reviewed) abstract
Background: Gynecologic examination is a common measure in reproductive health care. Many women experience the examination as a more or less negative event, with shortcomings in the examiner's behavior. The aim of the study was to describe, in terms of critical incidences, women's experiences concerning the personnel's behavior in the situation of gynecologic examination. Methods. The informants were strategically chosen and consisted of 30 Swedish women between the ages of 18-82 years old. The data collection method was qualitative research interviews analyzed by critical incident technique. Results. The result consisted of 30 subcategories, five categories, and two main areas - trust and confirmation. The personnel enabled trust when they promoted participation, created confidence, and were supportive. The opposite behavior contributed to the lack of trust. Confirmation described behavior that confirmed, respectively, did not confirm the women. This was shown through the presence or lack of respect and engagement. Conclusion. The personnel's positive behavior enabled trust and confirmed the women as individuals, while negative behavior was decisive in an unfavorable way. A complexity of patterns of knowing in nursing was identified. Participation through information that contributed to trust was important and amounted to one fourth of the incidents in the material. Respect and engagement, which confirmed the women, facilitated a positive caring relationship. The examination situation can be improved through reflection of the personnel's own behavior and further research about women's own experiences.
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10.
Gardiner, Helena, et al.
(author)
Ventriculo-vascular interaction in the normal development of the fetal circulation
2001
In: Early Human Development. - 1872-6232. ; 65:2, s. 97-106
Journal article (peer-reviewed) abstract
OBJECTIVES: To examine cardiovascular physiology in the healthy fetus during normal development. DESIGN: Twenty normal fetuses were studied longitudinally from 20 weeks to term. Serial echocardiography was performed, and arterial and venous diameter pulse wave characteristics and aortic pulse wave propagation velocity (PWV) were examined in the thoracic descending aorta (AoD) and inferior caval vein (IVC) using an ultrasonic phase-locked echo-tracking system. Statistical analyses included ANOVA, paired t-test and logistic regression where appropriate. RESULTS: Aortic PWV, maximum incremental and late decremental velocities increased with gestation while the relative pulse amplitude decreased, reflecting falling distal impedance. There was a linear increase in cardiac preload and relative pulse amplitude in the IVC with gestation that correlated significantly with the presence of end-diastolic flow in the pulmonary artery and improvement in right ventricular diastolic function. CONCLUSIONS: Non-invasive concurrent assessment of preload, ventricular function and impedance are possible in the fetus and may prove useful in the longitudinal study of fetal adaptation to pathophysiological changes.