Transition and Memory in Women's Birth Narratives: A Metaphoric Analysis.

Abstract

Understanding how women describe their birth experiences through metaphors can help healthcare teams improve their communication, emotional support, and care delivery. This study examined how first-time mothers' birth metaphors evolved over time. This prospective qualitative study used a phenomenological approach with semistructured in-depth interviews of 50 primiparous women who gave birth in Konya between March and July 2024. Interviews were conducted at the 6th-week and 6th-month postpartum. The metaphor analysis revealed over 20 metaphors that women used to describe their birth experiences. At the 6th-week postpartum, dominant themes included maternal responsibility and gendered expectations, instinct, rebirth, exaltation, and inner unrest. By the 6th-month postpartum, these themes shifted, with purification, satisfaction, leaving a trace, and duality of beauty and pain becoming more prominent. This change indicates an evolution in women's emotional processing of their birth experiences over time. While some positive perceptions persisted, the emergence of duality of beauty and pain at 6 months postpartum shows the complex nature of birth experiences. The metaphors provided insights to help midwives better support women emotionally and psychologically.