“I Felt Violated”: Women’s Experience of Childbirth-Associated Anger

Abstract

To investigate the lived experience of childbirth-associated anger.

Descriptive phenomenology.

Open-ended interviews were conducted with 10 women who had experienced the phenomenon of interest and volunteered to participate. All of the women had experienced vaginal delivery of term or near-term infants without anomalies or birth sequelae of note. Interviews were recorded on audio tape, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed for themes by an interdisciplinary group of researchers.

Women’s narratives described violation of the implicit relational contract with their healthcare providers. Themes focused on the anger experienced when their expectations about trust, power, control, and being kept informed were not met.

Nursing implications include the need to educate women prenatally about the process of labor and delivery, establish relationships that convey care and concern, keep women informed about events and progress, and treat women as full participants in the decision-making process.