| Chapter 1: | Maternal Expectations in 21st-Century U.S. Birth Culture |
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(Christiaens, Verhaeghe, & Bracke, 2008). Similarly, Green, Coupland, and Kitzinger (1990; 1998) reported that positive expectations related to a greater sense of control and a better birth experience, whereas negative expectations corresponded to more negative outcomes.
It may be that those who hold high expectations behave in ways to bring their experiences closer to what they ultimately anticipate (Miller & Turnbull, 1986). Among this study’s mothers, for example, one who anticipated a medication-free hospital birth purchased a birth hypnosis home-study kit, made an audiotape of “birth affirmations” to use during labor and delivery, and requested that her wishes for natural birth written into her medical record. Dozens of mothers in this study seeking one approach to childbirth or another sought practitioners supportive of their interests in the hopes of achieving what they anticipated.
Overall, previous research has identified a connection between maternal expectations and experiences, and mismatches between the two have been associated with negative feelings toward the birth experience. Involved in the match between expectations and experiences may be the original quality of maternal expectations, obstetric intervention, and the birth setting; previous childbirth experience is less important. This research has limited relevance to contemporary U.S. mothers, however, because nearly all studies were conducted outside the United States, where health-care systems and cultural views differ; the unique context in which contemporary U.S. mothers are functioning, characterized by unprecedented options and constraints, will necessarily have some bearing on their expectations and on the extent to which their subsequent experiences match them.
Researcher Preconceptions and Biases
A critical step in the research process, particularly the approach I used in this study (described later in this chapter) is to identify one’s preconceptions and biases and continually reflect on those over the course of the work (Moustakas, 1994). My research and clinical training prepared me to construct research materials, conduct interviews, and analyze data