Background: High-risk pregnancy refers to a pregnancy that negatively affects the health of the mother, the baby, or both. High-risk pregnancy evokes a range of emotional and psychological experiences for the expectant mother, and can adversely affect both the mother and the baby's health. Medical research on high-risk pregnancy abounds, while women's emotional/psychological experiences are not sufficiently documented, and hence much less attention and/or programming is directed to support women with high risk pregnancies. Methods: The aim of this review is to present published evidence of how studies reported on the emotional and psychological experiences of a woman's high-risk pregnancy journey. The systematic review examined qualitative studies over a 10 year period that were published between January 2006 and June 2017. These studies were identified on 10 databases. The study utilised three stages of review (i.e. abstract reading, title reading, and full-text reading) and for a successful conduction of the meta-synthesis, this study applied one of the phases provided by Noblit and Hare. Results: The findings provide empirical evidence that women's emotional and psychological experiences (i.e. shock, fear, frustration, grief, isolation and loneliness, anger, sadness, guilt, and mental health disorder) are evident throughout their high-risk pregnancies experience.

Since the medical link between sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV/AIDS was established, there has been an increased focus on the spread of STIs in South Africa. The aim of this study was to provide an in-depth picture of the dynamics involved in sexuality and the spread of STIs and HIV/AIDS. The authors present the findings of a focus group study, which was a part of a larger, national project addressing the broad question of health-care seeking behavior for STIs. A discourse analysis carried out on 10 focus groups reveals complex and rich narratives on the way in which STIs are constructed in South African communities. The dominant discourses focused on the continuing stigmatization of STIs, causal explanations, and prevention strategies. The analysis raises important recommendations for both educational interventions and health services toward the challenge of halting the spread of STIs and HIV/AIDS.

After the unprecedented changes experienced in higher education due to the Covid-19 pandemic, there is a need to integrate initial thoughts and reflective experience to decide on the way forward. This study aimed to reflect on, and make sense of the events related to South African higher education institutions HEIs at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic by using the Cynefin framework. Data from a rapid review of online media at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and a collaborative autoethnography session 1 year since lockdowns were implemented are used to present perspectives for the sense-making process. This offers insights to both ends of the spectrum as it highlights the evolution of processes taking place at multiple levels from government policies to institutional practices, as well as how this impacted on both staff and students. The Cynefin framework demonstrated sense-making efforts in the disordered, to the chaotic, to the complex, then to the complicated and eventually to the simple domain. Each domain ushered in its peculiarities and highlighted the issues ranging from vulnerabilities experienced in the higher education sector, to trying to reconfigure the academic year, to dealing with wicked problems, to eventually relying on expert assistance to navigate the virtual university space. Trying to establish causality in the simple domain proved challenging as the information available during the time was sparse. Despite these challenges, the lessons learnt include the importance of the sense-making process among all academic staff, the significance of collaboration and team efforts and the need to adapt leadership and self-leadership approaches to the changed ways of working in higher education institutions.

Child homicide is the most extreme form of violence against children. Within South Africa, children face the highest risk of homicide by parents/caregivers. It is suggested that prolonged exposure to adverse relationships with one’s own parents may be linked to committing child homicide as it may lead to psychological damage and disturb neurological functioning. This paper explores the adverse parent-child relationships of 22 men and women incarcerated for the murder of either a biological child, a stepchild or a child in their care and draws on 49 in-depth interviews with these participants. We illustrate that traumatic parent-child experiences in the form of absent parents, neglect and abuse have a profound impact on establishing unhealthy attachment styles and emphasize the importance of early adverse parent-child bonds in setting the tone for future bonds as adults. The pathway to adopting an adverse attachment with one’s own child is argued to be influenced by these early traumatic emotional experiences within the home. This study highlights the need to acknowledge the impact that adverse parent-child experiences have on the formation of violent forms of parental behavior. It is imperative to reduce children’s emotional vulnerabilities by implementing strategies to strengthen current parenting practices, to promote the development of less violent parent-child relationships and to work towards resolving parents’ experiences of trauma in reducing child homicide.

Violence against women and violence against children are distinct research fields. Quantitative studies have demonstrated their intersection, but qualitative data provides an opportunity for a comprehensive understanding of this interface. Interviews with 22 parents/caregivers convicted of child homicide provided an opportunity to explore the context of violent experiences in their lives including their use of violence and their experiences of it in their intimate and parenting relationships. Using a feminist framework, we found that patriarchal family structures, gender and power dynamics contribute to the use of violence. Revenge child homicide was common with distinct gendered differences. This study calls for closer collaboration between the two fields to assist in developing prevention interventions to address and eradicate both forms of violence.