HAND BEHAVIORS OF WOMEN DURING CHILDBIRTH.
Contributors: University of Pittsburgh.
Published: 1984
Number of pages: 146
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: An exploratory study was conducted to determine what could be inferred from the hand behaviors of women during childbirth. Three components of hand behaviors were identified from a preliminary study: hand action, object of the action, and purpose of the action. Nine actions were defined: grasping, pressing, rubbing, non-moving, gesticulating, holding, playing, palpating, and striking. Three objects identified were: the self, inanimate items, and other persons. Eleven purposes were defined: attacking, augmenting, bracing, caretaking, comforting, containing, inactivating, informing, orienting, regulating, and requesting. A data collection instrument, in grid form, to accommodate recording of each component of the hand behaviors was constructed. Direct observation was the method for data collection. Thirty women were observed once every half hour during one uterine contraction and 60 seconds of uterine relaxation. The data were tabulated by frequency and percentage in relation to each component of the hand behaviors and the uterine state.

The findings demonstrated a predominance of grasping and pressing actions. Rubbing and non-moving were the next most frequent actions. The remaining hand actions were gesticulating, holding, playing, palpating, and striking. More than one-half of the hand actions were used for the purpose of comforting. Caretaking and inactivating were also frequent purposes. Objects of the hand actions in order of predominance were: the self, inanimate items, and other persons.

The self and inanimate items as object of the hand actions were found to occur more frequently during uterine relaxation than during contraction. Other persons were used as the object of hand actions more often during uterine contraction than during uterine relaxation. Purposes of the hand actions which occurred more often during uterine relaxation than during uterine contraction included: comforting, caretaking, inactivating, and augmenting. The purpose of containing occurred slightly more often during uterine contraction than relaxation. Actions used for the purpose of bracing occurred only during uterine contraction. Minimal or no difference was noted in the frequency of the use of the hand actions for the purposes of informing, orienting, attacking, regulating, and requesting.

The hand behaviors seemed to enable the women to actively participate in the childbirth process to achieve mastery of the experience.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 45-05, Section: B, page: 1432.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH, 1984.

School code: 0178.