Nursing Care of the Family During Labor and Birth

Nurses and maternal healthcare givers should always be ready to support mothers during childbirth because this is a natural process. The family of the expectant mother is ever satisfied with the birth experience whenever there is adequate support for the mother during birth. This will, in turn, minimize the use of interventions, medications and develop the right attitude for the mothers towards raising their newborns (Gramling, Hickman & Bennett, 2014). Generally, the care for women during labor and childbirth is aimed at ensuring safe delivery and health of the mother and the newborn and also maintaining an excellent attitude for the family and the mother. This paper, therefore, aims at examining how nursing care of the family during labor and birth is effectively conducted.

Labor and Birth Maternal Experience

Nursing care for the family during labor and birth is driven by the health demands, preferences and values of every expectant mother encircled in her cultural and social context. According to research, the care for the pregnant woman entails that this mother and her family should be handled critically and especially for they are considered to be unique (Ricci & Kyle, 2016). Offering a family-centered that conforms to the desires of the expectant mother holds a high chance of a successful encounter during the labor and birth experience.

Different women have different needs and experiences. Diverse people hold various philosophies concerning birth issues about their particular knowledge, social, experience, culture and family belief, and framework cycles. Therefore, the nurses and the support care should respect and consider these values always when giving attention to the family during labor and birth. It is evident that some women have got the fear phobia towards delivery which makes them to at times get scared to decide upon their care or the over-control need. The nurses should acknowledge and accommodate these feelings. An ideal way to effectively handle and care for women and their families is through the adoption of care that they will prefer and not that preferred by the nurses or the medical institution providing the care.

Women experience many perceptions concerning labor and birth issues. Such issues may include the knowledge the mother has towards issues of birth, the nature of care support the mother and the newborn will acquire, how the actual birth event will occur concerning the mother’s expectations, and other social factors that may circumscribe her birth process. According to research, it is evident that a woman who experiences a positive encounter during birth adjusts quickly to parenting, has a good personality and follow-up care, long-lasting positive development of her psychological security and the future health of her child. 

About the Canadian survey of maternity experience, more than 80 percent of the mothers in Canada acknowledge that their birth experience was very welcoming or positive. Those who were delivering for the subsequent times were noted to be more comfortable as compared to those who were becoming first-time mothers (Gramling, Hickman & Bennett, 2014). Over two-thirds of the total number of mothers was noted to have the satisfaction and felt great during the labor and birth experience. They were delighted with the compassionate information they acquired and the understanding they were accorded.  

Nevertheless, different women have different experiences. For instance, as per the maternity survey experiences, there was a considerable variation in the nature and use of technology and medical interventions among the urban mothers as compared to those in the rural areas (Ricci & Kyle, 2016). The less educated, the young mothers and the poor earning mothers were noted to have less fortunate maternity encounters. Some of them even lacked adequate knowledge concerning labor and birth. Due to the little satisfaction of these mothers during the birth experiences and the negligible opportunity of having any of their family members around, they also recorded that their newborns were in better condition health wise.   

To adequately consider the labor and birth experiences of the women, then both the practices and policies should be based on their requirements and the evidence as per the existing research. For the process of enhancing quality in the maternal health care services, there are programs with the birth centers and hospitals whereby the mothers after birth are required to share their views concerning the services they received (Ricci & Kyle, 2016). The women can also be involved in the development process whereby they will be allowed to give their views concerning the existing gaps and the required development programs. It is indeed crucial to generating continuous development programs and policies that will enable the effective service delivery and skilled labor and birth experience for the women in the society.

Effective Communication with the Family and Mothers during Birth

The times of birth-giving have always been known to be the joyful and exciting moments. However, they may also tend to be the moments of fear and anxiety. Therefore, the care of the nurses towards the families and the women at this level is very vital (Gramling, Hickman & Bennett, 2014). Such support is instrumental in ensuring that the health of the mother and the newborn are catered for and that any possible threats are addressed.

From the current literature review, it is evident that when there is effective communication between the nurses and the women and their families, the birth experience will be significantly enhanced. Indeed connection is very vital. Women prefer when they are treated with care and respect. Authors have summarized a positive feedback recorded by women concerning the positive birth encounters that women faced, i.e. love, care, trust, tenderness, empathy, kindness peace, etc. it has been concluded that women love to obtain information and support, of their activities so that they can unleash their true self during the birth times. Also, the kind treatment and sharing of the caregivers with family members of the women is very vital for they feel that indeed everything is safe around them. Through the sharing with their families, the women feel satisfied and even see this as a conducive birth experience.

It is crucial for the nurses to consider their tone variations, and the language they may use while talking to the women and their families at the times of labor and birth (Ward  & Hisley, 2015). The reason behind this is that the selection of words and the nature in which they are spoken may imply a positive or negative attitude, acceptance or denial, conclusions or judgments against the women and their families. This will affect communication in either way.

In conclusion, labor and birth experiences greatly depend on the way the caregivers treat and handle the women and their families with information and support during this period. For ideal labor and birth experiences that will lead to the good health of both the mother and the newborn from the tome of birth henceforth, nurses and caregivers play a vital role. How nurses will communicate and share with the family and the expectant mother will impact on how the labor and birth process will go about. Therefore, for effective and safe labor and birth encounters, the nurses should always ensure perfect communication with the mothers, families and their partners.

References

Gramling L, Hickman K, Bennett S (2014). What makes an excellent family-centered partnership between women and their practitioners? A qualitative study. Birth;31(1):43-8.

Ricci, S. S., & Kyle, T. (2016). Maternity and pediatric nursing. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

Ward, S., & Hisley, S. (2015). Maternal-Child Nursing Care Optimizing Outcomes for Mothers, Children, & Families. FA Davis.