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    Midwives' descriptions of the postnatal experiences of women who use illicit substances: A descriptive study

    Access Status
    Fulltext not available
    Authors
    Dowdell, Julie
    Fenwick, Jennifer
    Bartu, Anne
    Sharp, Jennifer
    Date
    2009
    Type
    Journal Article
    
    Metadata
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    Citation
    Dowdell, Julie Anne and Fenwick, Jennifer and Bartu, Anne and Sharp, Jennifer. 2009. Midwives' descriptions of the postnatal experiences of women who use illicit substances: A descriptive study. Midwifery. 25 (3): pp. 295-306.
    Source Title
    Midwifery
    DOI
    10.1016/j.midw.2007.03.008
    ISSN
    0266 6138
    Faculty
    School of Nursing and Midwifery
    Faculty of Health Sciences
    Remarks

    The link to the journal’s home page is: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/623060/description#description. Copyright © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/33136
    Collection
    • Curtin Research Publications
    Abstract

    Objectives. To describe midwives’ perceptions of the early mothering experiences of 20 Australian illicit-drug-using mothers. Design. A qualitative retrospective study using an explorative descriptive design. Twenty client records, completed by research midwives over 6 months (with follow-up visits at 12 and 18 months), formed the data set. Thematic analysis and the techniques associated with constant comparison were used to analyse the data. Setting. Perth, Western Australia. Participants. Twenty postpartum women with a history of using illicit drugs. Findings. Seven major themes were identified that described how childbearing women with drug problems strive to be ‘normal mums’ although living on the fringe of society. The first three major themes were labelled; Baby as the priority; Hating the body: and Life sucks. Theme four represents the level of family and community support available, which had the potential to facilitate and/or hinder the experience. The analysis suggested that women who had good support, particularly at 4 months postpartum and beyond, were more likely to move towards the fifth theme Hanging in there: striving to be a normal mum. Women with minimal support, living in hostile and often abusive environments, gravitated towards the theme of Beyond caring with the eventual consequence being chaos and a return to heavy drug use, labelled Emotional fibrillation.

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