Doctoral Thesis: Labour and birth in water: women’s narratives.
Waterbirth is currently a marginalised practice within midwifery in the United Kingdom (UK). This research explored women’s stories of labour and birth in water and how these were constructed to reflect transitions to motherhood and changes in identity. This study sought to answer the question: What do women’s stories of waterbirth reveal about a woman’s self and social identity around birth?
A feminist framework guided the research design adopting a narrative inquiry methodology to explore the stories of ten women who birthed in water. A single in-depth interview facilitated elicitation of the women’s stories of waterbirth. Stories were analysed using the Voice Centred Relational Method (VCRM) with an emphasis given to the socio-cultural and relational contexts individual to the woman. Three key narratives that emerged from the women’s stories were identified. These were: the ‘visible self,’ the ‘agent self’ and the ‘connected self.’
MSc Professional Healthcare Education Dissertation
The Experiences of Black and Minority Ethnic Students on the Pre-registration Midwifery: 18 month programme.
This study focused on the experiences of black and minority ethnic students, in particular, those who have undertaken a shortened pre-registration midwifery programme. It explored the experiences that this group of students had whilst on the programme from an educational as well as clinical perspective. A grounded theory approach was used within this small scale pilot study with the use of semi-structured interviews to gather data which was analysed according to the original premise of Glaser and Strauss’s work (1967).
Rich descriptions of the participant’s experiences of the 18 month midwifery programme emerged, often with specific reference to their ethnicity. Five main themes were identified from the interviews conducted including education; identity; inequality; acceptance/judgement; English as a second language.
