Narrative Sense-Making During COVID-19: Using Stories to Understand Birth in a Global Pandemic

References

• Babrow, A. S., & Mattson, M. (2011). Building health communication theories in the 21st century. In T. L. Thompson, R. Parrott & J. F. Nussbaum (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of health communication (2nd ed., pp. 18–35). Routledge.
   Google Scholar
• Bute, J. J. (2015). Honoring stories of miscarriage: A plea to health care providers. In J. Baglia & R. Silverman (Eds.), Pregnancy loss: Narrative as a method for change (pp. 33–44). Peter Lang Publishing.
   Google Scholar
• Bute, J. J., Brann, M., Johnson, N., & Scott, S. F. (2021, November). Communication privacy management and pandemic birth stories [Paper presentation]. The Annual Meeting of the National Communication Association, Seattle, WA.
   Google Scholar
• Bute, J. J., & Jensen, R. J. (2011). Narrative sense-making and time lapse: Interviews with low- income women about sex education. Communication Monographs, 78(2), 212–232. https://doi.org/10.1080/03637751.2011.564639
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. National Vital Statistics System, Natality on CDC WONDER Online Database. (2021). Data are from the Natality Records 2016-2021, as compiled from data provided by the 57 vital statistics jurisdictions through the Vital Statistics Cooperative Program. http://wonder.cdc.gov/natality-expanded-current.html
   Google Scholar
• Ceulemans, M., Hompes, T., & Foulon, V. (2020). Mental health status of pregnant and breastfeeding women during the COVID-19 pandemic: A call for action. International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics, 151(1), 146–147. https://doi.org/10.1002/ijgo.13295
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Charon, R. (2006). Narrative medicine: Honoring the stories of illness. Oxford University Press.
   Google Scholar
• Charvat, E., Horstman, H. K., Jordan, E., Leverenz, A., & Okafor, B. (2021). Navigating pregnancy during the COVID-19 pandemic: The role of social support in communicated narrative sense-making. Journal of Family Communication, 21(3), 167–185. https://doi.org/10.1080/15267431.2021.1932503
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Chmielewska, B., Barratt, I., Townsend, R., Kalafat, E., van der Meulen, J., Gurol-Urganci, I., O’Brien, P., Morris, E., Draycott, T., Thangaratinam, S., Le Doare, K., Ladhani, S., von Dadelszen, P., Magee, L., & Khalil, A. (2021, March). Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on maternal and perinatal outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet Global Health, 9(6), e759–772. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(21)00079-6
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Clark, M. (2022, February 25). Increase in maternal mortality during COVID underscores need for policy changes. Georgetown University Health Policy Institute. https://ccf.georgetown.edu/2022/02/25/increase-in-maternal-mortality-during-covid-underscores-need-for-policy-changes/#:~:text=The%20rate%20of%20women%20who,than%20twice%20the%20national%20average.
   Google Scholar
• Corbin, J., & Strauss, A. (2015). Basics of qualitative research. Sage.
   Google Scholar
• Crear-Perry, J., Correa de Araujo, R., Lewis Johnson, T., McLemore, M. R., Neilson, E., & Wallace, M. (2021). Social and structural determinants of health inequities in maternal health. Journal of Women’s Health, 30(2), 230–235. https://doi.org/10.1089/jwh.2020.8882
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Cripe, E. T. (2009). Supporting breastfeeding (?): Nursing mothers’ resistance to and accommodation of medical and social discourses. In H. Zoller & M. J. Dutta (Eds.), Emerging perspectives in health communication (pp. 73–94). Routledge.
   Google Scholar
• Crowley, J. P. (2014). Expressive writing to cope with hate speech: Assessing psychobiological stress recovery and forgiveness promotion for lesbian, gay, bisexual, or queer victims of hate speech. Human Communication Research, 40(2), 237–261. https://doi.org/10.1111/hcre.12020
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Donovan Kicken, E., Tollison, A. C., & Goins, E. S. (2011). A grounded theory of control over communication among individuals with cancer. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 39(3), 310–330. https://doi.org/10.1080/00909882.2011.585398
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Farley, C., & Widmann, S. (2001). The value of birth stories. International Journal of Childbirth Education, 16(3), 22–25.
   Google Scholar
• Flood-Grady, E., & Koenig Kellas, J. (2019). Sense-making, socialization, and stigma: Exploring narratives told in families about mental illness. Health Communication, 34(6), 607–617. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2018.1431016
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Guttman, N., & Lev, E. (2021). Ethical issues in COVID-19 communication to mitigate the pandemic: Dilemmas and practical implications. Health Communication, 36(1), 116–123. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2020.1847439
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Harter, L. M., Japp, P. M., & Beck, C. S. (2005). Vital problematics of narrative theorizing about health and healing. In L. M. Harter, P. M. Japp & C. S. Beck (Eds.), Narratives, health, and healing: Communication theory, research, and practice (pp. 7–29). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
   Google Scholar
• Head, K. J., Bute, J. J., & Ridley-Merriweather, K. E. (2021). Everyday interpersonal communication about health and illness. In T. L. Thompson & N. G. Harrington (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of health communication (3rd ed., pp. 149–162). Routledge.
   Google Scholar
• Holman, A., & Horstman, H. K. (2019). Similarities and dissimilarities in spouses’ narratives of miscarriage: A dyadic analysis of communicated narrative sense-making and well-being. Journal of Family Communication, 19(4), 293–310. https://doi.org/10.1080/15267431.2019.1628763
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Hoyert, D. L. (2022). Maternal mortality rates in the United States, 2020. NCHS Health E-Stats. https://doi.org/10.15620/cdc:113967externalicon
   Google Scholar
• Johnson, B. L., & Quinlan, M. M. (2019). You’re doing it wrong! Mothering, media, and medical expertise. Rutgers University Press.
   Google Scholar
• Johnson, N. L., Scott, S. F., & Brann, M. (2020). “Our birth experiences are what binds us”: Women’s motivations for storytelling about birth to build motherwisdom. Communication Studies, 71(4), 649–668. https://doi.org/10.1080/10510974.2020.1771391
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Jorgenson, J., & Bochner, A. P. (2004). Imagining families through stories and rituals. In A. L. Vangelisti (Ed.), Handbook of family communication (pp. 513–538). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
   Google Scholar
• Koenig Kellas, J. (2018). Communicated narrative sense-making theory: Linking storytelling and well-being. In D. Braithwaite, E. Suter & K. Floyd (Eds.), Engaging theories in family communication: Multiple perspectives (2nd ed., pp. 62–74). Routledge.
   Google Scholar
• Koenig Kellas, J., Baxter, L. A., LeClair-Underberg, C., Thatcher, M. S., Routsong, T. R., Lamb Normand, E., & Braithwaite, D. O. (2014). Narratively (re)framing stepfamily beginnings: The relationship between adult stepchildren’s stepfamily origin stories and their perceptions of the family. Journal of Family Communication, 14(2), 149–166. https://doi.org/10.1080/15267431.2013.864294
   Google Scholar
• Koenig Kellas, J., & Horstman, H. K. (2015). Communicated narrative sense-making: Understanding family narratives, storytelling, and the construction of meaning through a communicative lens. In L. H. Turner & R. West (Eds.), The Sage handbook of family communication (2nd ed., pp. 76–90). Sage.
   Google Scholar
• Koenig Kellas, J., Morgan, T., Taladay, C., Minton, M., Forte, J., & Husmann, E. (2020). Narrative connection: Applying CNSM theory’s translational storytelling heuristic. Journal of Family Communication, 20(4), 360–376. https://doi.org/10.1080/15267431.2020.1826485
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Koenig Kellas, J., Willer, E. K., & Kranstuber, H. (2010). Fairytales and tragedies: Narratively making sense of the dark side (and the dark side of making sense) of personal relationships. In W. R. Cupach & B. H. Spitzberg (Eds.), The dark side of close relationships (Vol. II, pp. 83–114). Routledge.
   Google Scholar
• Kotlar, B., Gerson, E., Petrillo, S., Langer, A., & Tiemeier, H. (2021). The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on maternal and perinatal health: A scoping review. Reproductive Health, 18(10). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12978-021-01070-6
   PubMedGoogle Scholar
• Lai, J., Romero, R., Tarca, A. L., Iliodromiti, S., Rehal, A., Banerjee, A., Yu, C., Peeva, G., Palaniappan, V., Tan, L., Mehta, M., & Nicolaides, K. H. (2021). SARS-CoV-2 and the subsequent development of preeclampsia and preterm birth: Evidence of a dose-response relationship supporting causality. American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, 225(6), 689–693.e1. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajog.2021.08.020
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. G. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Sage.
   Google Scholar
• Lyubomirsky, S., Sousa, L., & Dickerhoof, R. (2006). The costs and benefits of writing, talking, and thinking about life’s triumphs and defeats. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90(4), 692–708. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.90.4.692
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• McAdams, D. P., & Bowman, P. J. (2001). Narrating life’s turning points: Redemption and contamination. In D. P. McAdams, R. Josselson & A. Lieblich (Eds.), Turns in the road: Narrative studies of lives in transition (pp. 3–24). American Psychological Association. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/10410-001
   Google Scholar
• Pennebaker, J. W. (2000). Telling stories: The health benefits of narrative. Literature and Medicine, 19(1), 3–18. https://doi.org/10.1353/lm.2000.0011
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Pennebaker, J. W. (2018). Expressive writing in psychological science. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 13(2), 226–229. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691617707315
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Pennebaker, J. W., & Keough, K. A. (1999). Revealing, organizing, and reorganizing the self in response to stress and emotion. In R. J. Contrada & R. D. Ashmore (Eds.), Self, social identity, and physical health: Interdisciplinary explorations (pp. 101–121). Oxford University Press.
   Google Scholar
• Pollock, D. (1999). Telling bodies, performing birth: Everyday narratives of childbirth. Columbia University Press.
   Google Scholar
• Scharp, K. M., Geary, D. E., Wolfe, B. H., Wang, T. R., & Fesenmaier, M. A. (2021). Understanding the triggers and communicative processes that constitute resilience in the context of migration to the United States. Communication Monographs, 88(4), 395–417. https://doi.org/10.1080/03637751.2020.1856395
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Scott, S. F., Johnson, N. L., Brann, M., & Bute, J. J. (2022). ‘Had I gone into the office, they would have caught it a little bit sooner’: Narrative problematics in U.S. pandemic birth stories. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 50(6), 711–729. https://doi.org/10.1080/00909882.2022.2143275
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Sharf, B. F., Harter, L. M., Yamasaki, J., & Haidet, P. (2011). Narrative turns epic: Continuing developments in health narrative scholarship. In T. L. Thompson, R. Parrott & J. F. Nussbaum (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of health communication (2nd ed., pp. 36–51). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203846063
   Google Scholar
• Sharf, B. F., & Vanderford, M. L. (2003). Illness narratives and the social construction of health. In T. L. Thompson, A. Dorsey, K. I. Miller & R. Parrott (Eds.), Handbook of health communication (pp. 9–34). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
   Google Scholar
• Tomkins, S. S. (1987). Script theory. In J. Aronoff, A. I. Rabin & R. A. Zucker (Eds.), The emergence of personality (pp. 147–216). Springer.
   Google Scholar
• Tracy, S. J. (2020). Qualitative research methods: Collecting evidence, crafting analysis, communicating impact (2nd ed.). Wiley Blackwell.
   Google Scholar