Managing my pregnancy: A grounded theory of pregnancy and childbearing beliefs and practices of women of Mexican descent
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Lorena Consuelo Guerrero, PhD, ARNP, FNP-BC
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Examples of pregnancy-specific health beliefs and practices of Hispanic women are found in the medical literature, but the findings regarding the beliefs and practices are often outdated, limited, mostly curative in nature, and are often dismissed as benign cultural practices of a mainly homogeneous cultural group. Hispanic women incorporate both conventional and biomedical practices with traditional medicine/complementary and alternative medicine in their treatment of illnesses. The findings from this study served to illustrate current pregnancy-specific health beliefs and practices of pregnant Hispanic women of Mexican origin. vii The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of the pregnancy-specific health beliefs and practices that pregnant women of Mexican origin engage in and to explore the decision-making process related to the adoption, alteration, or rejection of these beliefs and practices. Using grounded theory methodology allowed the emergence of a theory grounded in the lives of the women in this study. This theory emerged from the raw data, is consistent among all participants in the study, and describes the process in which pregnant Hispanic women of Mexican origins care for themselves during their pregnancies. Constant comparison, open, axial, and selective coding techniques were used to analyze the data. A total of 16 participants were interviewed which produced 17 face-to-face interviews for data analysis. The interviews were conducted in Spanish or English, audio recorded, transcribed, and analyzed. Ten participants were born in the U.S. and five participants were born in Mexico. One participant self-identified as being Asian-Hispanic. The study took place in an inner city community health center in southwest Texas. A substantive theory, the process of insuring a healthy pregnancy and infant, emerged from the data. A core category, or basic social process, Managing my Pregnancy, was identified. The core category, Managing my Pregnancy, described the process and interventions this group of Hispanic women of Mexican ancestry engaged in that led them to ensure they did everything possible to have a healthy pregnancy, a quick and uneventful labor, and delivered a healthy infant. This three-stage process included Gaining Knowledge, Caring for Myself, and Constant Monitoring. The first stage of Managing my Pregnancy is Gathering Knowledge. Two subcategories of Gaining Knowledge were Reading Information and Listening to What Others Say. The second stage of Managing my Pregnancy was Caring for Myself and was demonstrated by the viii participants engaging in the subcategories of Trying to Choose Healthy Foods, Going to the Clinic, Being Carefully Active, and Controlling my Emotions. Constant Monitoring was the final stage of the process of Managing my Pregnancy and included two subcategories; Being Aware and Making Decisions. Participants made decisions by relying on their intuition and knowledge of previous experiences to make decisions regarding which beliefs and practices to follow. The findings from this study have implications for future research, nursing practice, education, research, and health care policy. Further research into the impact of the tightening and closure of our southern border on socioeconomic factors, use of the internet, knowledge of lead ingestion, use of traditional herbs, and the role of male family members during the prenatal period is needed. Implications for nursing practice include assessment of financial/immigration stressors and juice consumption during pregnancy. Nursing education may benefit from knowledge that women may or may not engage in traditional health care beliefs commonly associated with Hispanics. In conclusion, health care policy may be positively affected by encouraging government initiatives that educate women on the dangers of unidentified diseases on pregnancy as well as subsidizing passport fees.
The author retains copyright.
This item has not gone through this repository's peer-review process, but has been accepted by the indicated university or college in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the specified degree.
Type | Dissertation |
Acquisition | Proxy-submission |
Review Type | None: Degree-based Submission |
Format | Text-based Document |
Evidence Level | Grounded Theory |
Research Approach | Qualitative Research |
Keywords | Cultural Beliefs about Pregnancy; Hispanic Women; Pregnant Women |
Grantor | The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio |
Advisor | Avant, Kay A. |
Level | PhD |
Year | 2009 |
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