Speaker: Jade Qiong Zheng
Facilitator: Jane Houston
Stillbirth is a unique phenomenon with various manifestations influenced by culture and spirituality. Different cultural and religious beliefs may influence the emotional response to perinatal grief as well as the demand for bereavement care. The majority existing research on perinatal grief comes from Western society. Under Chinese cultural context, post-stillbirth grief healing for bereaved mothers is not applicable.
Objective: This study investigated the role of culture and spirituality in the grief healing of mothers with stillbirth in China.
Methods: The study was grounded in an interpretivist constructionist epistemology. In-depth interviews with mothers suffering stillbirth within the previous year were used in a qualitative study. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data.
Findings: 28 women were interviewed by trained interviewers. Three key themes were identified: 1. The impact of culture on grief expression with four sub-themes: Restrained expressions of grief, Unattainable mourning ceremony, Hospital policy as a barrier, and Others-oriented grief; 2. Cultural characteristics of post-stillbirth experiences with four sub-themes: The paternalistic medical culture, “KongYuezi”, The embarrassment of postpartum visiting， and Cultural taboos on dealing with deceased babies remains; 3.Significance in cultural and spiritual healing behaviour with four sub-themes: Finding the meaning of the event, Accepting and Reconciling with the event, Reshaping beliefs and worldviews of life and death, and Gaining and self-growth.
Conclusion: Culture and spirituality play an important role in bereaved mothers’ post-stillbirth grief healing. Caregivers should avoid preconceived notions about grief. A bereavement care guideline that is culturally and spiritually appropriate for China is required.
Recording: https://youtu.be/eDXegqWbIHk
Speakers: Giyawati Yulilania Okinarum, Venny Vidayanti and Sri Hasta Mulyani
Facilitator: Rizka Setyani
Yogyakarta is a popular tourist destination in Indonesia, but lactation rooms in public facilities in tourist areas are currently difficult or nonexistent. The lack of lactation rooms and facilities will affect breastfeeding activities for mothers who spend their daily lives in public places. Researchers propose a solution in the form of an innovative portable public breastfeeding room. Its goal is to assess user satisfaction with the newly developed public lactation room facilities. The descriptive-analytic method is used in this study. A questionnaire is distributed to determine user satisfaction. Then proceed with the selection of participants based on the results of the questionnaire distribution. Purposive sampling of 122 respondents who were breastfeeding mothers according to the established criteria was used in this study. The color and design of the lactation room received the highest mean satisfaction score (4.92), while ventilation received the lowest (1.66). The Ruang Sehati Lactation Room is an innovation that was created in response to the needs of users, specifically tourists who are breastfeeding mothers in Yogyakarta City’s tourist area. This innovation is also a pilot that can be shown nationally, presenting an image of Jogja City as a mother- and child-friendly tourist destination.
Recording: https://youtu.be/1WLiv8AkX34
Speaker: Tom McEwan and Moira Lewitt
Facilitator: Adetoro Adegoke
Respectful of ‘artistry’ within midwifery, a recent research study conducted with Professor Moira Lewitt explored how midwifery students understand the concept of professionalism and how their professional identity develops during midwifery education. Midwifery students learn and adopt complex professional behaviours in a variety of academic and clinical settings throughout their educational journey. The aims of this study were to explore how midwifery students understand the concept of professionalism and how their professional identity develops during midwifery education.. The method used a conversation about professionalism with a group of final year midwifery students that was transcribed ‘in the moment’ and immediately performed to the group as poetry. Themes emerging from analysis of the conversation are also presented as poetry. The results demonstrated that midwifery students, moving between university and practice, emphasise the importance of close connections between these spaces and the role models in them, for learning. External constraints generated a sense of fear and stress that was seen to limit midwives’ ability to properly support the needs of ‘their woman’. We concluded that the notion of ‘spaces’ is important in maternity care and developing education for future midwives. Poetry is a useful multidimensional tool in research. This utilised poetry as an innovative multidimensional tool for research. The process of conducting this research, the key themes identified and the poetry generated will be discussed in this session.
Recording: https://youtu.be/nglnqbG26vs
