The Construal of Midwives by Pregnant Women with a Body Mass Index Greater Than or Equal to 30 kg/m2 (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2 ): A Repertory Grid Study.
Clin Psychol Psychother
; 24(2): 392-400, 2017 Mar.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-26936253
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE:
To explore the construal of midwives by pregnant women with a body mass index greater than 30 kg/m2 (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2 ).METHOD:
Ten pregnant women with a BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2 were recruited from antenatal clinics at a maternity hospital in the North West of England. Each participant completed a repertory grid. The participants chose people to match roles including themselves, pregnant women, midwives of different BMIs and hypothetical elements. They also generated psychological constructs to describe them.RESULTS:
Pregnant women with a BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2 construed themselves as vulnerable and self-conscious. Some women endorsed obesity-related stereotypes for themselves and felt responsible for their weight. The midwife with a BMI 18 < 30 kg/m2 was considered to be most similar to the ideal midwife, while the midwife with a BMI ≤ 18 kg/m2 was construed as having an undesirable interpersonal style. The midwife with a BMI ≥ 40 kg/m2 was often construed as sharing similar experiences to the pregnant women with a BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2 , such as struggling with the psychological consequences of a raised BMI. Some women construed the midwife with a BMI 30 < 40 kg/m2 in a positive way, whereas others viewed it as sharing similar feelings about weight as the midwife with a BMI ≥ 40 kg/m2 .CONCLUSIONS:
The pregnant women with a BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2 in this study described perceptions of themselves and the midwives responsible for their care, which may affect their engagement and satisfaction with services. Pregnant women with a BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2 should be involved in service development activities to ensure the structure of services and the language used by midwives are acceptable and do not confirm weight-related stereotypes. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. KEY PRACTITIONER MESSAGE Pregnant women with a BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2 construe themselves as vulnerable and self-conscious and perceive themselves responsible for their weight. Pregnant women with a BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2 construe midwives with a low BMI as having an undesirable, cold, interpersonal style. Midwives with a raised BMI are construed as similar to the women, because they share the uncomfortable psychological consequences of a raised BMI. The nature of pregnant women's construal may affect their engagement and satisfaction with maternity services and midwifery care.Palabras clave
Texto completo:
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Banco de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Complicaciones del Embarazo
/
Relaciones Profesional-Paciente
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Índice de Masa Corporal
/
Partería
/
Obesidad
Límite:
Female
/
Humans
/
Pregnancy
País como asunto:
Europa
Idioma:
En
Año:
2017
Tipo del documento:
Article