TY - JOUR
T1 - Healing the past by nurturing the future
T2 - A qualitative systematic review and metasynthesis of pregnancy, birth and early postpartum experiences and views of parents with a history of childhood maltreatment
AU - for the Healing The Past By Nurturing The Future group
AU - Chamberlain, Catherine
AU - Ralph, Naomi
AU - Hokke, Stacey
AU - Clark, Yvonne
AU - Gee, Graham
AU - Stansfield, Claire
AU - Sutcliffe, Katy
AU - Brown, Stephanie J.
AU - Brennan, Sue
N1 - Funding Information:
This review and the Healing the Past by Nurturing the Future project is funded by the Lowitja Institute Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health CRC and the National Health and Medical Research Council (1141593). Catherine Chamberlain receives an NHMRC Career Development Fellowship (1161065). Stephanie Brown holds an NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship (1103976). Research staff at the MCRI are supported by the Victorian Government’s Operational Infrastructure Support Program. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. We thank Dr Sharinne Crawford, Ms Steph Saidel and Ms Karen Glover for their assistance screening titles and abstracts for inclusion in this review. We gratefully acknowledge the support and advice of Mr Stav Amichai Hillel for assistance running some of the searches and Ms Jenny Fafeita with using NVivo for this review. We thank Dr Fiona Mensah for comprehensive feedback on the final draft of this review. We acknowledge the oversight of this review from other members of the Healing the Past by Nurturing the Future Investigator Group who are not listed as authors: Judy Atkinson, Jan Nicholson, Deirdre Gartland, Helen Herrman, Karen Glover, Tanja Hirvoven, Fiona Mensah, Caroline Atkinson, Shawana Andrews, Helen McLachlan, Sandra Campbell and Danielle Dyall. We also acknowledge the representatives of our project partner organisations for their project oversight and leadership in this area, including: Jesse Odgers (Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation), Gina Bundle (Royal Womens Hospital), Sarah Crossing and Joy Makepeace (Nunkuwarrin Yunti of South Australia Inc.), Jacqui Ah Kit (Women and Children’s Health Network), Bronwyn Silver (Central Australian Aboriginal Congress) and Alison Elliott (Bouverie Family Healing Centre). We thank Rhonda Marriott for her ‘critical friendship’ and other team members including Carol Reid, Georgie Igoe and Leanne Slade for input into team discussions related to this review.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Chamberlain et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
PY - 2019/12/1
Y1 - 2019/12/1
N2 - Background Child maltreatment can have serious effects on development and physical, social and emotional wellbeing. Any long-lasting relational effects can impede the capacity to nurture children, potentially leading to ‘intergenerational trauma’. Conversely, the transition to parenthood during pregnancy, birth and the early postpartum period offers a unique life-course opportunity for healing. This systematic review aims to understand the pregnancy, birth and early postpartum experiences of parents who reported maltreatment in their own childhood. Methods A protocol, based on the ENTREQ statement, was registered with PROSPERO. We searched Medline, PsycINFO, CINAHL, EMBASE, NHS Evidence and key Web of Science databases from date of inception to June 2018 to identify qualitative studies exploring perinatal experiences of parents who were maltreated in their own childhood. Two reviewers independently screened articles for inclusion and extracted data. Data were synthesised using grounded theory and thematic analysis approaches. Findings The search yielded 18329 articles, 568 full text articles were reviewed, and 50 studies (60 articles) met inclusion criteria for this review. Due to the large number of studies across the whole perinatal period (pregnancy to two years postpartum), this paper reports findings for experiences during pregnancy, birth and early postpartum (27 studies). Parents described positive experiences and strategies to help them achieve their hopes and dreams of providing safe, loving and nurturing care for their children. However, many parents experienced serious challenges. Seven core analytic themes encapsulated these diverse and dynamic experiences: New beginnings; Changing roles and identities; Feeling connected; Compassionate care; Empowerment; Creating safety; and Reweaving a future. Conclusions Pregnancy birth and the early postpartum period is a unique life-course healing opportunity for parents with a history of maltreatment. Understanding parent’s experiences and views of perinatal care and early parenting is critical for informing the development of acceptable and effective support strategies.
AB - Background Child maltreatment can have serious effects on development and physical, social and emotional wellbeing. Any long-lasting relational effects can impede the capacity to nurture children, potentially leading to ‘intergenerational trauma’. Conversely, the transition to parenthood during pregnancy, birth and the early postpartum period offers a unique life-course opportunity for healing. This systematic review aims to understand the pregnancy, birth and early postpartum experiences of parents who reported maltreatment in their own childhood. Methods A protocol, based on the ENTREQ statement, was registered with PROSPERO. We searched Medline, PsycINFO, CINAHL, EMBASE, NHS Evidence and key Web of Science databases from date of inception to June 2018 to identify qualitative studies exploring perinatal experiences of parents who were maltreated in their own childhood. Two reviewers independently screened articles for inclusion and extracted data. Data were synthesised using grounded theory and thematic analysis approaches. Findings The search yielded 18329 articles, 568 full text articles were reviewed, and 50 studies (60 articles) met inclusion criteria for this review. Due to the large number of studies across the whole perinatal period (pregnancy to two years postpartum), this paper reports findings for experiences during pregnancy, birth and early postpartum (27 studies). Parents described positive experiences and strategies to help them achieve their hopes and dreams of providing safe, loving and nurturing care for their children. However, many parents experienced serious challenges. Seven core analytic themes encapsulated these diverse and dynamic experiences: New beginnings; Changing roles and identities; Feeling connected; Compassionate care; Empowerment; Creating safety; and Reweaving a future. Conclusions Pregnancy birth and the early postpartum period is a unique life-course healing opportunity for parents with a history of maltreatment. Understanding parent’s experiences and views of perinatal care and early parenting is critical for informing the development of acceptable and effective support strategies.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85076436869&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0225441
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0225441
M3 - Article
C2 - 31834894
AN - SCOPUS:85076436869
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 14
JO - PloS one
JF - PloS one
IS - 12
M1 - e0225441
ER -