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Experiences of pregnant women exposed to Hurricanes Irma and Maria in the US Virgin Islands: a qualitative study
INTRODUCTION: Hurricanes Irma and Maria made landfall in the US Virgin Islands (USVI) in 2017. To date, there is no published literature available on the experiences of pregnant women in the USVI exposed to these hurricanes. Understanding how hurricanes affect pregnant women is key to developing and...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BioMed Central
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9759877/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36528572 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12884-022-05232-7 |
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author | Jeffers, Noelene K. Wilson, Deborah Tappis, Hannah Bertrand, Desiree Veenema, Tener Glass, Nancy |
author_facet | Jeffers, Noelene K. Wilson, Deborah Tappis, Hannah Bertrand, Desiree Veenema, Tener Glass, Nancy |
author_sort | Jeffers, Noelene K. |
collection | PubMed |
description | INTRODUCTION: Hurricanes Irma and Maria made landfall in the US Virgin Islands (USVI) in 2017. To date, there is no published literature available on the experiences of pregnant women in the USVI exposed to these hurricanes. Understanding how hurricanes affect pregnant women is key to developing and executing targeted hurricane preparedness and response policies. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of pregnancy and birth among women in the USVI exposed to Hurricanes Irma and Maria. METHODS: We employed a qualitative descriptive methodology to guide sampling, data collection, and analysis. Semi-structured interviews of 30–60 min in length were conducted with a purposive sample of women (N = 18) in the USVI who were pregnant during or became pregnant within two months after the hurricanes. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and data managed in MAXQDA. Team members developed a codebook, applied codes for content, and reconciled discrepancies. We thematically categorized text according to a socioecological conceptual framework of risk and resilience for maternal-neonatal health following hurricane exposure. RESULTS: Women’s experiences were organized into two main categories (risk and resilience). We identified the following themes related to risk at 3 socioecological levels including: (1) individual: changes in food access (We had to go without) and stress (I was supposed to be relaxing); (2) household/community: diminished psychosocial support (Everyone was dealing with their own things) and the presence of physical/environmental hazards (I was really scared); and (3) maternity system: compromised care capacity (The hospital was condemned). The themes related to resilience included: (1) individual: personal coping strategies (Being calm); (2) household/community: mutual psychosocial and tangible support (We shared our resources); and (3) the maternity system: continuity of high-quality care (On top of their game). CONCLUSIONS: A socioecological approach provides a useful framework to understand how risk and resilience influence the experience of maternal hurricane exposure. As the frequency of the most intense hurricanes is expected to increase, clinicians, governments, and health systems should work collaboratively to implement hurricane preparedness and response plans that address pregnant women’s unique needs and promote optimal maternal-infant health. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12884-022-05232-7. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9759877 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-97598772022-12-19 Experiences of pregnant women exposed to Hurricanes Irma and Maria in the US Virgin Islands: a qualitative study Jeffers, Noelene K. Wilson, Deborah Tappis, Hannah Bertrand, Desiree Veenema, Tener Glass, Nancy BMC Pregnancy Childbirth Research INTRODUCTION: Hurricanes Irma and Maria made landfall in the US Virgin Islands (USVI) in 2017. To date, there is no published literature available on the experiences of pregnant women in the USVI exposed to these hurricanes. Understanding how hurricanes affect pregnant women is key to developing and executing targeted hurricane preparedness and response policies. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of pregnancy and birth among women in the USVI exposed to Hurricanes Irma and Maria. METHODS: We employed a qualitative descriptive methodology to guide sampling, data collection, and analysis. Semi-structured interviews of 30–60 min in length were conducted with a purposive sample of women (N = 18) in the USVI who were pregnant during or became pregnant within two months after the hurricanes. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and data managed in MAXQDA. Team members developed a codebook, applied codes for content, and reconciled discrepancies. We thematically categorized text according to a socioecological conceptual framework of risk and resilience for maternal-neonatal health following hurricane exposure. RESULTS: Women’s experiences were organized into two main categories (risk and resilience). We identified the following themes related to risk at 3 socioecological levels including: (1) individual: changes in food access (We had to go without) and stress (I was supposed to be relaxing); (2) household/community: diminished psychosocial support (Everyone was dealing with their own things) and the presence of physical/environmental hazards (I was really scared); and (3) maternity system: compromised care capacity (The hospital was condemned). The themes related to resilience included: (1) individual: personal coping strategies (Being calm); (2) household/community: mutual psychosocial and tangible support (We shared our resources); and (3) the maternity system: continuity of high-quality care (On top of their game). CONCLUSIONS: A socioecological approach provides a useful framework to understand how risk and resilience influence the experience of maternal hurricane exposure. As the frequency of the most intense hurricanes is expected to increase, clinicians, governments, and health systems should work collaboratively to implement hurricane preparedness and response plans that address pregnant women’s unique needs and promote optimal maternal-infant health. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12884-022-05232-7. BioMed Central 2022-12-17 /pmc/articles/PMC9759877/ /pubmed/36528572 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12884-022-05232-7 Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. |
spellingShingle | Research Jeffers, Noelene K. Wilson, Deborah Tappis, Hannah Bertrand, Desiree Veenema, Tener Glass, Nancy Experiences of pregnant women exposed to Hurricanes Irma and Maria in the US Virgin Islands: a qualitative study |
title | Experiences of pregnant women exposed to Hurricanes Irma and Maria in the US Virgin Islands: a qualitative study |
title_full | Experiences of pregnant women exposed to Hurricanes Irma and Maria in the US Virgin Islands: a qualitative study |
title_fullStr | Experiences of pregnant women exposed to Hurricanes Irma and Maria in the US Virgin Islands: a qualitative study |
title_full_unstemmed | Experiences of pregnant women exposed to Hurricanes Irma and Maria in the US Virgin Islands: a qualitative study |
title_short | Experiences of pregnant women exposed to Hurricanes Irma and Maria in the US Virgin Islands: a qualitative study |
title_sort | experiences of pregnant women exposed to hurricanes irma and maria in the us virgin islands: a qualitative study |
topic | Research |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9759877/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36528572 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12884-022-05232-7 |
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