'She would help me from the heart': An ethnography of Egyptian women in labour
This article reports an ethnographic study of the intrapartum care of women who were expecting normal births in an Egyptian hospital. The study involved observations of labouring women, and interviews with them shortly after they had given birth. The data were synthesised into three themes: the epistemology of hospital care, characterised by 'technical touch'; women's experience of hospital childbirth, which was contrasted unfavourably with home birth experiences; and women's epistemology of birth, which was characterised by 'helping from the heart'. This latter concept expresses the participants' preferred way of doing birth. We describe the impact of the paradigm clash experienced by these women, and propose an approach to the provision of childbirth care in Egypt and beyond which combines the clinical safety of evidence based and experientially developed technical skills with the emotional safety of trusting, respectful, loving relationships. We have termed this 'skilled help from the heart'.
Year of publication: |
2006
|
---|---|
Authors: | El-Nemer, Amina ; Downe, Soo ; Small, Neil |
Published in: |
Social Science & Medicine. - Elsevier, ISSN 0277-9536. - Vol. 62.2006, 1, p. 81-92
|
Publisher: |
Elsevier |
Keywords: | Childbirth care Hospital/home birth Egypt |
Saved in:
Online Resource
Saved in favorites
Similar items by person
-
Community social work in China and Britain
Small, Neil, (1984)
-
"Bringing heaven down to earth" : the purpose and place of religion in UK food aid
Power, Madeleine, (2017)
-
Politics and planning in the National Health Service
Small, Neil, (1989)
- More ...