Parental Contextual Factors and Decision-Making Related to Periviable Birth: An Integrative Review

Authors

Amy L. Wright, University of TorontoFollow
Elizabeth Mens, University of Toronto
Gausiha Rathitharan, University of Toronto

Abstract

Parents facing a periviable birth, or birth before 25 weeks of gestation, commonly engage in antenatal consultation with healthcare providers to determine a plan of care. Parents’ pre-existing contextual factors, beliefs, and values influence their decisions regarding birth and the care of their infant. This study aims to understand the role of parental contextual factors and best-practices to their integration during antenatal consultation The Whittemore and Knafl (2005) approach to conducting an integrative review along with thematic analysis was employed to determine and present the findings. Results describe three themes related to how contextual factors influence parental decision-making: personal values and hope, religion, and cultural and racial contexts. Parental contextual factors are important to integrate during antenatal consultation, yet how to do this is relatively understudied. A more thorough understanding will facilitate more individualized and effective counselling approaches for parents facing periviable birth.

Keywords

antenatal consultations, decision making, parents, periviable birth, preterm birth, integrative review

Author Bio(s)

A.L. Wright, PhD, Nurse Practitioner, is an Assistant Professor at the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, University of Toronto. Dr. Wright conceptualized the manuscript, and was primarily responsible for protocol development, data analysis and writing the manuscript. Corresponding author: amyl.wright@utoronto.ca

E. Mens, BA (Hons.), BScN, RN, MI is a nurse and research assistant at the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing at the University of Toronto. Ms Mens contributed to developing the protocol, participated in data analysis and writing the manuscript.

G. Rathitharan, BSc, MSc, BScN, RN is a nurse and research assistant at the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing at the University of Toronto. Ms Rathitharan contributed to developing the protocol, search strategy, participated in data analysis and writing the manuscript.

Publication Date

1-18-2023

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.46743/2160-3715/2023.5565

Recommended APA Citation

Wright, A. L., Mens, E., & Rathitharan, G. (2023). Parental Contextual Factors and Decision-Making Related to Periviable Birth: An Integrative Review. The Qualitative Report, 28(1), 200-226. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2023.5565

ORCID ID

https://orcid.org/ 0000-0002-2207-2545