Comments on: Research blues http://www.bellytales.com/2005/09/16/research-blues/ The Diary of a New Midwife Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:43:42 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: The Student http://www.bellytales.com/2005/09/16/research-blues/comment-page-1/#comment-20 The Student Mon, 19 Sep 2005 02:32:08 +0000 http://www.studentmidwife.org/?p=76#comment-20 Becca: These are all *great* suggestions. I especially like the idea of interviewing women to see how the 24-hour-deadline affects them. I bet that the pressure of the deadline works against them, if it doesn't actually shut their labor down altogether. I have noticed that whenever a woman gets too much in her "head", and out of her body, her labor tends to slow down or completely stop, and there's nothing like an arbitrary, unflexible deadline and all of the inherent anxiety that it brings with it, to drag a woman out of her body and back into her head. This seems to be a much more qualitative and anthropological approach, though, which is fine, but not something I'm that familiar with. But that's okay, because hey, what's the point of being a student if you don't force yourself to learn new things? I have a meeting with my professor this week to discuss my options. I'll certainly keep everyone posted about what we come up with, but you've set the little wheels spinning. Thank you! Becca: These are all *great* suggestions. I especially like the idea of interviewing women to see how the 24-hour-deadline affects them. I bet that the pressure of the deadline works against them, if it doesn’t actually shut their labor down altogether. I have noticed that whenever a woman gets too much in her “head”, and out of her body, her labor tends to slow down or completely stop, and there’s nothing like an arbitrary, unflexible deadline and all of the inherent anxiety that it brings with it, to drag a woman out of her body and back into her head.

This seems to be a much more qualitative and anthropological approach, though, which is fine, but not something I’m that familiar with. But that’s okay, because hey, what’s the point of being a student if you don’t force yourself to learn new things?

I have a meeting with my professor this week to discuss my options. I’ll certainly keep everyone posted about what we come up with, but you’ve set the little wheels spinning. Thank you!

]]> By: becca http://www.bellytales.com/2005/09/16/research-blues/comment-page-1/#comment-18 becca Fri, 16 Sep 2005 22:38:32 +0000 http://www.studentmidwife.org/?p=76#comment-18 So in the context of a Midwifery program, what kind of original research are you expected to do? Do they expect you to get data by interviewing people, or doing lab experiments, or compiling and interpreting statistics, or... Since there ARE places where the 24-hour deadline is not enforced and women are allowed to labor longer (the Farm in Tennessee, at the very least) it seems like you might be able to get enough comparative data to do some original analysis on this issue. Since I'm a social sciences girl, my head goes to interviewing mothers and midwives about their experiences. Has anyone in "the literature" so far documented the effects on women of feeling rushed by this deadline? It's one thing to look at the problems identified, interventions and birth outcomes ("failure to progress" leading to caesarean, etc) and entirely another thing to actually get the story, in which the woman is "failing to progress" because she is scared and being told by the "experts" that her body is not working fast enough. Or... what alternatives exist that can reduce the risk of these infections while allowing women to labor longer? Who is out there trying them? (You don't have to limit yourself to the U.S., here, either.) What outcomes are they finding? How would you design a study to test the effectiveness of one of these alternatives in the hospital where you work, or a local birthing center? I realize I could be totally barking up the wrong tree here, since I don't know what they want from you. But it seems like there could be stuff to work with on this topic. Have you talked with any classmates about what they're researching? So in the context of a Midwifery program, what kind of original research are you expected to do? Do they expect you to get data by interviewing people, or doing lab experiments, or compiling and interpreting statistics, or…

Since there ARE places where the 24-hour deadline is not enforced and women are allowed to labor longer (the Farm in Tennessee, at the very least) it seems like you might be able to get enough comparative data to do some original analysis on this issue.

Since I’m a social sciences girl, my head goes to interviewing mothers and midwives about their experiences. Has anyone in “the literature” so far documented the effects on women of feeling rushed by this deadline? It’s one thing to look at the problems identified, interventions and birth outcomes (”failure to progress” leading to caesarean, etc) and entirely another thing to actually get the story, in which the woman is “failing to progress” because she is scared and being told by the “experts” that her body is not working fast enough.

Or… what alternatives exist that can reduce the risk of these infections while allowing women to labor longer? Who is out there trying them? (You don’t have to limit yourself to the U.S., here, either.) What outcomes are they finding? How would you design a study to test the effectiveness of one of these alternatives in the hospital where you work, or a local birthing center?

I realize I could be totally barking up the wrong tree here, since I don’t know what they want from you. But it seems like there could be stuff to work with on this topic. Have you talked with any classmates about what they’re researching?

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