THE MATURE GRAVIDA'S ORCHESTRATION OF PREGNANCY FROM CONCEIVING TO BIRTHING (MATERNITY, MOTHERHOOD).
Contributors: University of California, San Francisco.
Published: 1991
Number of pages: 263
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Psychology, Social.; Sociology, Individual and Family Studies.
Description: The purpose of this investigation was to generate a substantive theory of how previously childless women over the age of 35 incorporated the events of pregnancy and childbirth into their ongoing lives. Grounded Theory, a naturalistic-inductive method of inquiry and analysis was employed.

A convenience sample of 20 childless pregnant women over the age of 35 were interviewed once during the third trimester of pregnancy and again during the first postpartum month. Interviews were semistructured according to theoretical sampling techniques and were tape recorded. Data were analyzed according to the techniques of dimensional and constant comparative analysis in which conceptualizations emerged from the data to specify and define the context and consequences of phenomena.

When the mature gravida enters the pregnancy experience she brings patterns of behavior derived from her biological, social, and personal history. These patterns of behavior represent an organizing perspective from which the gravida will orchestrate actions that occur in anticipation of, and in reaction to, pregnancy-timed events and life's random occurrences.

Three major organizing perspectives were identified (a) technical, (b) intermediary, (c) process. Pregnancy-timed events refer to the physically and socially constructed meaning of time during pregnancy where certain events act as pivotal experiences for the gravida. These identified time markers are (a) conceiving, (b) guarding, (c) embracing, (d) birthing. The particular signals that herald entrance into one time period and exit from another, the discreteness of the time periods, and the value accorded a specific time period vary according to the gravida's organizing perspective,.

When strategic actions taken by the gravida are in harmony with her organizing perspective and are appropriate to the changing demands of pregnancy, these new actions are incorporated into her repertoire and she experiences a feeling of control and success in accomplishing the challenges presented by pregnancy. If situations are presented that are at variance with the gravida's perspective and usual strategic actions are insufficiently informative, the gravida senses a lack of situational control and must modify her perspective or continue to meet with frustration.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-03, Section: B, page: 1357.

Thesis (D.N.S.)--UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO, 1991.

School code: 0034.