Psychosocial-cultural care for couples experiencing infertility: An integrative review

Abstract

Background

Infertility remains a major reproductive health issue across the globe which often leads to a myriad of psychosocial concerns. For societies where childbearing is considered a social prestige, the emergence of infertility can be devastating to affected persons and their families. Management strategies for infertility are still evolving albeit what remains poorly articulated is the guidelines to underpin the provision of culturally sensitive psychosocial care. To resolve this gap, this review sought to identify and integrate existing literature to formulate a conceptual understanding of culturally sensitive psychosocial care.

Methods

Whittemore and Knafl’s, 2009 integrative review approach was employed and reported based on the PRISMA checklist. A systematic search using relevant key terms or keywords for all relevant guidelines was carried out in relevant electronic databases, namely BioMed Central, Science Direct, CINAHL, Medline, Sabinet, Academic Search Ultimate, Nursing/Academic Edition, Emerald, PubMed Central, and Google Scholar. The guideline databases that were searched included: the Guideline International Network (G-I-N); the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE); and the National Guideline Clearing House (NGCH). Thematic analysis was employed to analyse the extracted data.

Results

Six (6) studies including three (3) systematic reviews of infertility care and three (3) guidelines for infertility management met the criteria for inclusion. Two themes and five subthemes emerged from the extracted data which encapsulate the need for patient-centered care and the availability of psychological, emotional, and social support.

Conclusions

The review concludes that healthcare providers need to adopt infertility interventions that are culturally sensitive and very supportive based on the provision of effective and efficient information and communication.