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The needs of men
Women and their partners, during the 1980s, were encouraged to play a greater part in their ‘birthing experience’ and couples became better informed.[11]
There has also been an emphasis on the importance of promoting options and choice for childbearing women and their partners.[2]
Despite this, many men still do not feel part of the labor process.
Some fathers have expressed a need for more support to achieve an active role within the labor experience.
One commentator has written to men:
“You may be all too aware of the feeling of helplessness and frustration that you are not able to do enough to help your wife, especially with her pain in first stage.”[12]
In a survey of fathers’ needs[13] the men considered themselves as essentially helpless in supporting their partner with the pain. Furthermore, two men out of the 30 in her survey “perceived health professionals as likely to increase the sense of powerlessness with which they viewed labour”.
Another important finding of this survey is that men want an active role during labor “because doing something seems more controlling than doing nothing”.
Questions
As a midwife, I used massage in labor, and the women found it both soothing and comforting. In addition, it gave me a positive, supportive role. I wanted to find out if I could pass this role on to the birthing partner; whether the partner could be more actively involved in the process of labor through the use of massage.
I therefore decided to undertake a review of the use of massage in my practice. This took place over a ten-month period. My purpose was to clarify:
• How best to implement massage for the woman, with her partner being the primary masseur;
• How to help the couple become more reliant on each other and not focus entirely on the midwife for support;
• How couples overall responded to this care option;
• Whether any modifications of the specific massage techniques were called for;
• Whether this programme would be of value in the future.
Participants
During my employment as a community midwife at the John Radcliffe Hospital, I offered massage to women whom I attended antenatally; others were referred to me by my colleagues, and some were women I met in early labour. Altogether, 50 women and their partners were included in the review. All the couples were interested in learning the massage techniques and agreed to complete a questionnaire between two and five days after delivery.
The questionnaire included closed and open questions and sought to gain information on their views of their preparation for labor, on their perception of massage for pain relief, the outcome of labor, the couples’ feelings about the labor and the effects of the massage.
Both partners completed the questionnaire.
Women were not offered massage if they were ‘high risk’ (for example with hypertensive disorders), if they were anticipating a caesarean section, or if they were planning a waterbirth.
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