Experiences of labour and childbirth among physicians in Canada: a qualitative study.

CMAJ open Pub Date : 2023-11-21 Print Date: 2023-11-01 DOI:10.9778/cmajo.20230042
Fanny Hersson-Edery, Janie Morissette, Perle Feldman, Kathleen Rice
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Abstract

Background: Little is known about physicians' birth experiences and the perceived relation between physicians' professional status and their birth outcomes, particularly in nonsurgical specialties. This study aimed to explore the birth experiences of physicians in Canada and to determine their perception of the relation between their profession, and their birth experiences and obstetric outcomes.

Methods: We undertook a qualitative descriptive study consisting of in-depth interviews with practising physician birthing parents, all members of the Canadian Physician Mothers Group (online Facebook community) who had deliveries between 2016 and 2021. Data were analyzed using conventional content analysis.

Results: Fourteen interviews were conducted. Half of the participants worked in primary care specialties. From participants' narratives, we developed 5 themes pertaining to physicians' birth experiences: (negative impact of) professional culture of medicine whereby professional responsibility trumped personal needs; (mixed) impact of medical knowledge whereby participants felt empowered to make decisions and ask questions, but also experienced augmented stress due to knowing what could go wrong; difficulty stepping out of physician role; privileged access to care; and belief in negative impact of physician role on birth outcome. Some participants suggested possible reasons that physicians may have worse birth outcomes than the general public.

Interpretation: The professional culture of medicine was largely perceived as a negative, in particular, the pressure to deny one's own needs for the good of patients and colleagues. Physicians' increased access to medical care combined with their higher levels of anticipatory anxiety around childbirth could be exposing them to increased monitoring and surveillance, thus augmenting the likelihood of medical and surgical interventions.

加拿大医生的分娩经验:一项定性研究。
背景:关于医生的分娩经历以及医生的专业地位与分娩结果之间的关系,特别是在非手术专业,人们知之甚少。本研究旨在探讨加拿大医生的分娩经历,并确定他们对自己的职业、分娩经历和产科结果之间关系的看法。方法:我们进行了一项定性描述性研究,包括对2016年至2021年间分娩的加拿大医师母亲小组(在线Facebook社区)的执业医师分娩父母进行深入访谈。数据分析采用常规内容分析。结果:共进行了14次访谈。一半的参与者在初级保健专业工作。从参与者的叙述中,我们发展了5个与医生分娩经历有关的主题:(负面影响)医学专业文化,即职业责任胜过个人需求;(混合)医学知识的影响,参与者感到有能力做出决定和提出问题,但也因为知道哪里可能出错而感到压力增加;难以脱离医生的角色;享有获得护理的特权;以及医生角色对出生结果的负面影响。一些参与者提出了可能的原因,即医生的分娩结果可能比一般公众差。解释:医学专业文化在很大程度上被认为是消极的,特别是为了病人和同事的利益而否认自己需求的压力。医生获得医疗护理的机会增加,加上她们对分娩的预期焦虑程度更高,可能使她们受到更多的监视和监视,从而增加了医疗和手术干预的可能性。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
5.40
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0.00%
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