Pasirengimas motinystei: dulų veiklos ypatumai /

Becoming a mother is associated with challenges at different stages - pregnancy, childbirth and the postnatal period. Motherhood significantly affects a woman’s life: her family relationship, the postponement or suspension of her career might occur, her identity alters. At all stages, the woman's close environment, especially her partner, contributes to overcoming the difficulties of motherhood. In recent years, women in Lithuania can be supported not only by their close environment, but also by various organisations such as Motinystę globojančių iniciatyvų sąjunga, Krizinio nėštumo centras, Lietuvos šeimos centras; projects such as „Mama mums rūpi“, „Mamos linija“ and programme “Drauge”. Since 2014, Lithuanian women can be supported by Lietuvos dulų asociacija. The goal of this bachelor thesis is to explore the process of becoming and being doulas, whose aim is to create a safe environment for the mother-to-be in their care. This is accomplished by 1) discussing doulas’ practice and presenting theoretical hypotheses of practice research, 2) examining the process of becoming a doula, and 3) revealing the doing specifics of safe mothering and using theoretical ideas of displaying to identify the involvement of the surroundings in the creation of a safe environment. The first part of the thesis discusses the challenges of becoming a mother and the organisations researching motherhood issues and providing support for mothers in Lithuania. The second part presents the conception of safe motherhood as well as the theorical ideas of D. Morgan and J. Finch to research doula’s practise. The third part, presents results of empirical study of doulas' practices using the role-making map method. During the study, 9 doulas were selected and interviewed in purposive sampling way. The empirical findings of the study support the formulation of the following conclusions: (1) The choice of become a doula is related to doulas' personal experience of childbirth, their personal values, material rewards, perception of their purpose and relationship with the woman in care. (2) Doing of doula role ensures a safe motherhood through providing information, and holistic support as well as helping the woman to understand her new identity. (3) Displaying of the doula role takes place through the involvement of the woman's immediate (husband, parents) and distant (doctors) environment.

Grantor dc:publisher

Institutional Repository of Vilnius University

Year dc:date

2024

Author dc:creator

• Lozoraitytė, Greta,

Statement dc:rights

• info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

Language dc:language

lit

Repository record dc:identifier

https://repository.vu.lt/VU:ELABAETD210640921&prefLang=en_US

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vu.lt:elaba:210640921