The spiritual experience of high-risk pregnancy

Abstract

Objective: To uncover the spiritual beliefs and practices of women experiencing high-risk pregnancies. Design: Qualitative, naturalistic inquiry via face-to-face, semistructured interviews, with thematic analysis of interview transcripts. Setting: A prenatal special care unit of a tertiary healthcentre. Participants: A purposeful sample of 12 women admitted for high-risk pregnancy complications. Results: Analysis of the women's interviews uncovered the following themes: High-risk pregnancy as a challenge, seeking a spiritual language, what makes you who you are, and everything will be OK. Conclusions: Findings from this study highlight that within the challenges of a high-risk pregnancy, the women often struggled to define their spirituality yet recognized spiritual expression as key to their health and healing. Each woman identified aspects of their spirituality that enabled them and their families to deal with the stress of their high-risk pregnancy experience, which they believed enhanced outcomes for themselves and their unborn child. © 2007 AWHONN, the Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses.