A Matter of Choice: Perceptions of Personal Mastery and Control After Giving Birth

Authors

Melissa A. Dalton-Richardson, Brigham Young University
Dr. Lynn Callister, Brigham Young University

Keywords

personal mastery, giving birth, pregnant women

College

Nursing

Abstract

Within recent years, there has been a steady increase of births attended by midwives in the United States. The reemergence of midwives to the medical scene provides pregnant women with alternative methods of birth. In order to provide women with the most information possible about these two options of maternity care, there has been a good deal research done in the area of comparisons between obstetricians and certified nurse-midwives (CNM). Thus far, the research has done much in demarcating the differences in treatment and satisfaction of pregnant women. My research question took the next step in the research comparison. I attempted to discover if the differences in interventions of these two medical fields somehow affect a woman’s perceptions of self. My hypothesis was that those women in the CNM group would have higher perceptions of self-mastery and control than those in the obstetric group.

Recommended Citation

Dalton-Richardson, Melissa A. and Callister, Dr. Lynn (2013) "A Matter of Choice: Perceptions of Personal Mastery and Control After Giving Birth," Journal of Undergraduate Research: Vol. 2013: Iss. 1, Article 1681.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jur/vol2013/iss1/1681