The landscape of caring for women: a narrative study of midwifery practice*1

Abstract

Our purpose was to expand knowledge on the process and outcomes of midwifery care. Narrative analysis was used to interpret stories provided by midwives to illustrate their practice and recipients of midwifery care about their experience. A purposive sample of 14 midwives and four recipients of midwifery care was recruited as a subsample from a prior Delphi study on midwifery practice. Three broad themes were identified: 1) the midwife in relationship with the woman, 2) orchestration of an environment of care, and 3) the outcomes of care, called "life journeys" for the woman and the midwife. The findings are discussed from the perspectives of therapeutic landscapes described in cultural geography and prior research on midwifery practice. The challenge is to confirm the associations between the processes of care identified in these narratives with both short- and long-term outcomes in the health of women and their families. These appear to go well beyond the usual perinatal measures currently used in health care research and hold implications for how care is delivered, measured, and evaluated.

Adapting the Quality Maternal and Newborn Care (QMNC) Framework to evaluate models of antenatal care: A pilot study

“…Dahlberg and Aune’s qualitative study in Norway [ 17 ] found that positive relational continuity was highly prized by women. However, they concede that while clinical outcomes are easily assessed, measuring these relationships–and thereby identifying possible evidence for the underlying mechanism—is difficult, a challenge also noted by Kennedy et al [ 18 ].…”

Health, Wellness, and Place Attachment During and Post Health Pandemics

“…Smith, 2015 Therapeutic landscapes will help to strengthen immune system of the body. Kennedy et al, 2004 The environment of therapeutic landscapes will be good for rest, sleep, and rehabilitation. Kennedy et al, 2004 Therapeutic landscapes with a supporting network of people and services will help in quick healing and recovery.…”

“…Kennedy et al, 2004 The environment of therapeutic landscapes will be good for rest, sleep, and rehabilitation. Kennedy et al, 2004 Therapeutic landscapes with a supporting network of people and services will help in quick healing and recovery. Kennedy et al, 2004;Rodiek and Fried, 2005;Zhou et al, 2017 Therapeutic landscapes will provide aesthetic services (e.g., alternative treatments, diet and exercise plan, etc.…”

“…Visiting and staying at a destination's therapeutic landscapes helps me perform well in my daily life activities. Kennedy et al, 2004;Rodiek and Fried, 2005 Visiting and staying at a destination's therapeutic landscapes allows me to spend happy time with other people. Kennedy et al, 2004;Rodiek and Fried, 2005 Visiting and staying at a destination's therapeutic landscapes helps me to feel refreshing.…”

“…(Oster et al, 2011;Adongo et al, 2017;Majeed et al, 2018;Townsend et al, 2018;Ramkissoon, 2020), and (3) travel destinations with natural features (Palka, 1999) which provide restorative experiences alongside the feeling of comfort and gratitude to individuals seeking health and wellbeing (Hansen et al, 2017). Research on therapeutic landscapes continues to attract the attention of scholars across different fields including urban planning for landscape development (Rodiek and Fried, 2005), health geography (Smyth, 2005), nursing (Kennedy et al, 2004), psychology (Coghlan, 2015), holistic medicine (Williams, 1998), traditional and complementary medicine (Majeed et al, 2017a), medical tourism (Buzinde and Yarnal, 2012;Majeed and Lu, 2017;Majeed et al, 2018), public health (Love et al, 2012;Williams, 2014), and religion (Agyekum and Newbold, 2016).…”