WOMENS EVALUATION OF THE LABOR AND DELIVERY EXPERIENCE

The purpose oi this study was to identify how women described and eval uated their labor and delivery experience and what factors were relate d to their responses. Sixty Lamaze-prepared, married multigravidae, ag ed 21 to 37 years, participated in this qualitative field study Detail ed, open-ended, tape-recorded interviews were conducted on the postpar tum unit oi a community hospital or in the women's homes early during the postpartum period. Women evaluated their labor and delivery experi ence according to how well they perceived they herd managed their own childbirth performance. Women who managed well viewed childbirth as po sitive, whereas women who had difficulty or managed poorly viewed ii a s both positive and negative. Women who managed well thought their own performance and the nature of labor and delivery (physical aspects) w ent well; women who had difficulty thought labor and delivery and the performance of others went well, but women who managed poorly had prob lems identifying anything that went well. There was overall agreement that the baby was the best part oi the experience and that pain and pu shing were the worst parts. Since women's evaluation of their labor an d delivery experience may be related to the quality of their subsequen t mothering, it is important to enhance their perceptions of their own performance, and thus their evaluation of the childbirth experience.