title: The joy of childbirth: A mixed method exploration of positive birth experiences

authors: Nielsen, Ajay

abstract: The birth of a child is a significant event in a mother’s life and marks the start of many psychological, emotional and physical transitions. While negative birth experiences have been linked to poor psychological outcomes for mothers, positive birth experiences have been linked to increased self-esteem and confidence in parenting. Few studies have been conducted that explore the birth experience for New Zealand women, and this is particularly important due to the unique culture and maternity care system.
The aim of the current study was to identify factors associated with positive childbirth experiences for New Zealand women using a mixed methods approach. Recruitment for the current study was completed in the context of a pilot study for a mobile phone app for pregnant women. Survey data for 54 women were collected at four time points and included measures of emotional distress and, after delivery, subjective birth experiences and obstetric outcomes. Six women were interviewed and asked to share their birth narrative based on a positive appraisal of their birth experience.
The results of this study identified perceived control, midwifery support and the birthing environment as important factors associated with the birth experience. There was a weak non-significant correlation between pain and birth experience, supported by birth narratives that identified positive reframing of pain and a combination of the three factors above as mitigating factors. Emotional distress during pregnancy was not consistently associated with birth experience. Obstetric factors associated with birth experience included type of delivery, location of birth and presence of labour complications. 
This research highlights the importance of the maternity system and context of care for New Zealand women giving birth, a relevant finding given that during the time of the study, the midwifery profession was in the process of advocating to improve their working conditions and level of remuneration. Changes in maternity care and the midwifery profession, or lack of change, may have a considerable effect on the birth experience of New Zealand women.

text: The joy of childbirth: A mixed method exploration of positive birth experiences The birth of a child is a significant event in a mother’s life and marks the start of many psychological, emotional and physical transitions. While negative birth experiences have been linked to poor psychological outcomes for mothers, positive birth experiences have been linked to increased self-esteem and confidence in parenting. Few studies have been conducted that explore the birth experience for New Zealand women, and this is particularly important due to the unique culture and maternity care system.
The aim of the current study was to identify factors associated with positive childbirth experiences for New Zealand women using a mixed methods approach. Recruitment for the current study was completed in the context of a pilot study for a mobile phone app for pregnant women. Survey data for 54 women were collected at four time points and included measures of emotional distress and, after delivery, subjective birth experiences and obstetric outcomes. Six women were interviewed and asked to share their birth narrative based on a positive appraisal of their birth experience.
The results of this study identified perceived control, midwifery support and the birthing environment as important factors associated with the birth experience. There was a weak non-significant correlation between pain and birth experience, supported by birth narratives that identified positive reframing of pain and a combination of the three factors above as mitigating factors. Emotional distress during pregnancy was not consistently associated with birth experience. Obstetric factors associated with birth experience included type of delivery, location of birth and presence of labour complications. 
This research highlights the importance of the maternity system and context of care for New Zealand women giving birth, a relevant finding given that during the time of the study, the midwifery profession was in the process of advocating to improve their working conditions and level of remuneration. Changes in maternity care and the midwifery profession, or lack of change, may have a considerable effect on the birth experience of New Zealand women.

year: 2019

title: Re-energising Knowledge Management: Communication challenges, interdisciplinary intersections, and paradigm change

authors: Jones, Rachel Anne

subjects: Knowledge Management

abstract: Knowledge Management (KM) in the 1990s was a key upwardly-mobile management discipline. Indeed, a proliferation of articles suggested KM had the potential to make a radical departure from conventional views of organisational assets and resources, and even held the promise of transforming economies. Instead, however, KM has tended to become incorporated as a subset of traditional management. This thesis suggests that, as a result, knowledge has been perceived simply as another resource to be managed for competitive advantage. It further argues that KM need not subscribe to conventional views of management and that knowledge need not be just another resource to be exploited, hoarded, and traded. Instead, it contends that knowledge is an outcome of the process of connecting to one another in new ways and explores the field’s still-unrealised potential for generating fresh approaches relevant to contemporary conditions. In seeking to revive the excitement, and rekindle the potential, that originally surrounded the field, the thesis intervenes in current debates in KM. It attends to, and expands, the existing discourses of KM while presenting the case for a re-energised understanding of the communication of knowledge. Exploring intersections with other disciplines as well as KM’s own multidisciplinary base, it proposes transdisciplinary research as a productive focus for KM. In making these recommendations for KM’s future, the thesis seeks to make the field more responsive to current complex and dynamic academic, organisational, and social contexts. Its overall goal is not only to ensure KM’s ongoing relevance and effectiveness as a field, but to direct KM towards fulfilling its early potential.

text: Re-energising Knowledge Management: Communication challenges, interdisciplinary intersections, and paradigm change Knowledge Management (KM) in the 1990s was a key upwardly-mobile management discipline. Indeed, a proliferation of articles suggested KM had the potential to make a radical departure from conventional views of organisational assets and resources, and even held the promise of transforming economies. Instead, however, KM has tended to become incorporated as a subset of traditional management. This thesis suggests that, as a result, knowledge has been perceived simply as another resource to be managed for competitive advantage. It further argues that KM need not subscribe to conventional views of management and that knowledge need not be just another resource to be exploited, hoarded, and traded. Instead, it contends that knowledge is an outcome of the process of connecting to one another in new ways and explores the field’s still-unrealised potential for generating fresh approaches relevant to contemporary conditions. In seeking to revive the excitement, and rekindle the potential, that originally surrounded the field, the thesis intervenes in current debates in KM. It attends to, and expands, the existing discourses of KM while presenting the case for a re-energised understanding of the communication of knowledge. Exploring intersections with other disciplines as well as KM’s own multidisciplinary base, it proposes transdisciplinary research as a productive focus for KM. In making these recommendations for KM’s future, the thesis seeks to make the field more responsive to current complex and dynamic academic, organisational, and social contexts. Its overall goal is not only to ensure KM’s ongoing relevance and effectiveness as a field, but to direct KM towards fulfilling its early potential.

year: 2011

title: Hoera Te Mimiha

authors: Hart, Philip

abstract: Hoera Te Mimiha was a rangatira of Ngati Koi, an inferior hapu to Ngati Tamatera, and had affiliations to other hapu. Although to Pakeha he was a mere labourer, in Maori society in Ohinemuri in the 1870s and 1880s he was a leading figure. Details have been traced of his whakapapa, his wider family, and especially his children, one of whom married Hone Werahiko. 
Mimiha spent much time in the Maori Land Court trying to prove his entitlement to be included as an owner of several blocks of land, not always successfully, for he could not prove some of his cases either through ancestry or occupation. Other rangatira with superior whakapapa were able to show the weaknesses of some of his claims, forcing him into giving evasive answers to cross-examination. His evidence did reveal what land he had occupied and farmed.
Mimiha willingly sold land, including his interest in the Ohinemuri goldfield (the boundaries of which he had pointed out to surveyors), and obtained a good income, for a time. Being interested in mining from the early 1870s onwards, he was one of the few Maori willing to descend a shaft at Thames, an experience that encouraged him to push for opening Ohinemuri to mining, even, it seemed, if that endangered Maori control of their land. Having prospected at Karangahake before it was opened to mining in 1875, he participated in this rush and subsequently in the Te Aroha one of 1880, having interests in claims at all three portions of the latter field. When his daughter’s partner was murdered at Te Aroha, he calmed Maori anger, once again winning the gratitude of Pakeha.
Because of selling much of his land, he struggled financially, although unlike some Maori he did not drink his money away. Cutting off part of the ear of a Pakeha accused of raping his wife resulted in several court cases marked by dubious evidence presented by both sides. After being imprisoned for perjury, efforts by Pakeha to have his conviction reviewed resulted in his being judged to have been the only witness not to have lied to the court, but this sordid affair blackened his character.

text: Hoera Te Mimiha Hoera Te Mimiha was a rangatira of Ngati Koi, an inferior hapu to Ngati Tamatera, and had affiliations to other hapu. Although to Pakeha he was a mere labourer, in Maori society in Ohinemuri in the 1870s and 1880s he was a leading figure. Details have been traced of his whakapapa, his wider family, and especially his children, one of whom married Hone Werahiko. 
Mimiha spent much time in the Maori Land Court trying to prove his entitlement to be included as an owner of several blocks of land, not always successfully, for he could not prove some of his cases either through ancestry or occupation. Other rangatira with superior whakapapa were able to show the weaknesses of some of his claims, forcing him into giving evasive answers to cross-examination. His evidence did reveal what land he had occupied and farmed.
Mimiha willingly sold land, including his interest in the Ohinemuri goldfield (the boundaries of which he had pointed out to surveyors), and obtained a good income, for a time. Being interested in mining from the early 1870s onwards, he was one of the few Maori willing to descend a shaft at Thames, an experience that encouraged him to push for opening Ohinemuri to mining, even, it seemed, if that endangered Maori control of their land. Having prospected at Karangahake before it was opened to mining in 1875, he participated in this rush and subsequently in the Te Aroha one of 1880, having interests in claims at all three portions of the latter field. When his daughter’s partner was murdered at Te Aroha, he calmed Maori anger, once again winning the gratitude of Pakeha.
Because of selling much of his land, he struggled financially, although unlike some Maori he did not drink his money away. Cutting off part of the ear of a Pakeha accused of raping his wife resulted in several court cases marked by dubious evidence presented by both sides. After being imprisoned for perjury, efforts by Pakeha to have his conviction reviewed resulted in his being judged to have been the only witness not to have lied to the court, but this sordid affair blackened his character.

year: 2016