Medically high-risk pregnancy: Women’s perceptions of their relationships with health care providers

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this article is to examine women’s perceptions of the patient-provider relationship in the context of medically high-risk pregnancy (MHRP). Sixteen in-depth interviews were conducted with women hospitalized for MHRP on a maternal-fetal medical unit in the US. Tenets of phenomenology guided the data analysis. We found that beyond normative stress related to managing physical aspects of MHRP, women reported added emotional stressors associated with navigating the fragmented health care environment. This study suggests that improved care coordination and systematic integration of psychosocial professionals within the perinatal interdisciplinary health care team are vital to reduce care-related stressors on this vulnerable patient group.

KEYWORDS:

• High-risk pregnancy
• maternity care
• MHRP
• medically-complicated pregnancy
• patient experience
• patient-provider relationship
• perinatal health care team
• perinatal social work

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Rutgers University Research Council Grants in 2011 and 2013-14 [grant number 202215]. The authors would also like to thank Yvonne Johnson for her helpful feedback on an earlier draft.

Competing Interests

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Rutgers University Research Council Grant [202215].