Experiences and Perceptions of Rural Postpartum Women With Substance Use Disorders Inclusive of Opioids Regarding Their Care

<p>Perinatal opioid use and neonatal withdrawal continue to rise rapidly in the face of the growing epidemic of opioid addiction in the United States, with rural areas more severely impacted. Despite several decades of research and development of practice guidelines, maternal and neonatal outcomes have not improved substantially. This focused ethnography aimed to address that gap by exploring rural women’s experiences and perceptions of care to inform development of efficacious, holistic models of care to improve outcomes for these women and their children. Participant observations, oral accounts and formal interviews, and artifact review (i.e., health records, any print and electronic resources provided to the women to support direct care, and media documentation of the sociopolitical environment influencing the women’s care) were used to seek answers to the following questions: a) What are the experiences and perceptions of women with substance use disorder regarding the care they received during their pregnancy and through their infants’ hospitalization? and b) How have their experiences supported or inhibited their ability to bond with their baby?</p> <p>Thirteen participants were recruited through perinatal outpatient practices and hospital social workers. Their personal accounts, reinforced by participant observation and artifact review, uncovered three domains with underlying themes: access (service availability, distance/geographic location, transportation, provider collaboration/coordination, physical and emotional safety), care of the baby (proximity, information), and relationships (respect, empathy, familiarity, inclusion, interactions with care providers). The findings highlight the need for providers and policy makers to reduce barriers to care related to logistics, stigma, judgment, and lack of understanding of perinatal addiction.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

PhD

Level thesis:degree_level

Immediate Access

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Nursing

Year dc:date.available

2017

Author dc:creator

• Kramlich, Debra

Contributors dc:contributor

• Rebecca Kronk
• Alison Colbert
• Karen Jakub
• Lenora Marcellus

• Neonatal abstinence syndrome; Pregnancy; Rural women; Substance use disorder; Vulnerable populations

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

https://dsc.duq.edu/etd/174

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dsc.duq.edu:etd-1183