The meanings that postpartum women assign to gestational hypertension and premature birth

Abstract

The objective of this study was to understand the meanings that postpartum women assign to gestational hypertension that resulted in premature birth. Participants were 70 women, with a mean age of 28 years, 85.7% of whom delivered between the 32nd and 36th gestational week. A questionnaire with subjective questions was applied to identify the meanings of gestational hypertension and premature delivery for postpartum women. Results were analyzed based on the Theory of Social Representations. We observed the construction of a negative social representation, with death as the central nucleus and negative aspects as the peripheral nuclei. The latter derive from the risks the mother and fetus were exposed to during pregnancy and later in the postpartum period with the hospitalization of the child in the neonatal intensive care unit.