Search

Background: Maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality depend on identifying of pregnancy risks and risk management. There is a dearth of information about the experiences of high-risk pregnant mothers in self-mitigation of the risk in the socio-cultural setting of Iran. This research was conducted to explore the risk management experiences of high-risk pregnant mothers.Methods: This Qualitative study was conducted in educational hospitals in Mashhad, Iran, from July 2018 to December 2020. The purposive sampling method was used to recruit the participants based on medical or obstetric high-risk conditions in pregnancy. Qualitative data were obtained from in-depth and semi-structured 29 interviews. Mothers’ experiences of pregnancy in a risky condition were asked, and the interview continued until data saturation. Data were analyzed using the MAXQDA 10 software and the Elo and Kyngäs method.Results: Maternal experiences for risk management in pregnancy were formed by nine sub-categories and three categories: the excitement of emotion including: “feeling worry and despair”, “gladness in the shadow of hope and optimism”, “momentary shocking and excitement”, and “inactivity and helplessness”; self-contemplation including: “active analysis of the ways of moderating the risk”, “cognitive denial”, and “ignoring the risk”; and witnessed action including: “problem-focused and rational actions”, and “avoidance and inefficient engagements”.Conclusion: Risk management experiences of pregnant women with high-risk pregnancies include a wide range of positive and negative feelings, effective and ineffective thoughts, and behaviors. Mutual collaboration between mothers and midwives/obstetricians by providing high-quality risk management counseling can lead to choosing effective risk management strategies.

Background: Gaining adequate knowledge about high-risk pregnancy (HRP) and correctunderstanding of the condition, empowers women to improve the use of prenatal care, practice betterself-care, and reduce the risk of pregnancy complications. The present study aimed to assess thevaluation of knowledge by Iranian women with HRP.Methods: The present qualitative study was conducted on 25 women with HRP from August 2017to August 2018 at various educational hospitals in Mashhad, Iran. The data were collected throughin-depth semi-structured interviews. The data collection process continued until data saturation.The data were analyzed using the conventional content analysis method and MAXQDA software(version10.0). Data collection and data analysis were conducted concurrently.Results: Based on the analysis of the interviews, two main categories and eight sub-categories wereextracted. The main categories were “Positive valuation of credible problem-relevant knowledge” and“Avoidance of misleading and stressful information”. The results showed that various factors had apositive impact on knowledge gathering, namely personal and other people’s experiences, obtainingneed-based information, sympathetic advice from others, and faith-based health recommendations.On the other hand, factors that had a negative impact were related to the type of information thatcaused stress, was unreliable, inefficient or incompatible with personal goals.Conclusion: The findings of the present study would help health care providers to offer suitable andempathetic counseling to women with HRP. Providing valid and accessible sources of information willlead to faster and timely referrals of such patients.