Journal article
Narrative Sense-Making During COVID-19: Using Stories to Understand Birth in a Global Pandemic
Health communication, Vol.39(3), pp.629-639
03/2024
DOI: 10.1080/10410236.2023.2179714
PMID: 36797818
Abstract
Women who gave birth in the spring and summer of 2020 contended with a host of challenging factors. In addition to facing pregnancy, labor, and delivery during an emerging global pandemic, women grappled with health care restrictions that altered their birth experience. To explore how women made sense of their birth during COVID-19, we analyzed written narratives from 71 women who gave birth in the United States from March to July 2020. Based on tenets of communicated narrative sense-making, the themes that emerged from our data suggest that women framed the role of the pandemic as either completely overshadowing their birth experience or as an inconvenience. Women also wrote about threats to their agency as patients, mothers, and caregivers, as well as the evolving emotional toll of the pandemic that often prompted feelings of fear and sadness, along with self-identified anxiety and depression. We discuss these findings in light of the literature on birth stories as essential sites of narrative sense-making for women and their families.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Narrative Sense-Making During COVID-19: Using Stories to Understand Birth in a Global Pandemic
- Creators
- Maria Brann - Indiana University – Purdue University IndianapolisJennifer J. Bute - Indiana University – Purdue University IndianapolisSusanna Foxworthy Scott - Butler UniversityNicole L. Johnson - Iowa City VA Hlth Care Syst, CADRE, Ctr Comprehens Access & Delivery Res & Evaluat, Iowa City, IA USA
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Health communication, Vol.39(3), pp.629-639
- Publisher
- Taylor & Francis
- DOI
- 10.1080/10410236.2023.2179714
- PMID
- 36797818
- ISSN
- 1041-0236
- eISSN
- 1532-7027
- Number of pages
- 11
- Grant note
- Indiana University's Office
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 03/2024
- Academic Unit
- Internal Medicine
- Record Identifier
- 9984627346202771
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