A phenomenological study to explore the mother’s experiences on pregnancy, childbirth and postnatal period among high risk mothers at RGGW&CH, Puducherry

The experience of antenatal, intrapartum and postnatal care is an important life experience; these memories accompany women throughout life. Pregnancy and the birth of a child are significant and challenging events in a woman's life, associated with considerable physical and psychological change. In developing countries the focus has understandably been on women's physical health and there has been comparatively little research exploring women's experiences of pregnancy and childbirth pregnancy and delivery is a journey to unknown world. Purposive sampling technique was employed to select sample and it consisted of 20 postnatal mothers who met the inclusion criteria. Modified Sawyer et al interview questionnaire which contained open-ended questionnaires and demographic proforma was used to collect data. The researcher interviewed the participants and it was tape-recorded. Findings showed that with regard to the high-risk condition, the majority (55.0%) subjects had PIH, (20.0%) subjects had hypothyroidism, (15.0%) subjects had GDM and (10.0%) subjects had oligohydramnios, anemia, bronchial asthma, twin pregnancy, edema and eclampsia each. Minimum (5.0%) of the subjects were obese. The result highlighted that majority 25% of the participants took extra precautions, 20% of the participants had increased fear and were worried about their outcome and 15% were struggling to believe that they had the disease. Majority of the participants 25% did not want another child, 20% opted for surgery and 10% thought about their mother, lost hope. Majority of the participants 30% wanted support from their mother and 20% wanted support from their husband. There was no association between the experiences of high-risk mothers and specific demographic data. Experiences of high-risk mothers revealed that life after diagnosis, expectations of birth outcome and increased responsibility.