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Abstract Background Diastasis recti abdominis (DRA) is a common postpartum condition. Knowledge is scarce on how mothers perceive living with DRA. The interaction between healthcare providers and patients plays a significant role in shaping the healthcare service experience. Women suffering from typical women’s diseases tend to experience not being taken seriously or listened to when seeking healthcare. The aim of this study was to explore mothers’ experiences living with DRA. Methods Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with six Norwegian mothers, age 32–41, presenting with a clinically significant DRA. Topics discussed were how the condition is experienced, how it affects different aspects of day-to-day life and experiences with healthcare services. The data was analyzed using systematic text condensation. Results DRA had an impact on everyday life among the mothers included in this study. Three major themes emerged: (I) The path to obtaining knowledge and understanding of DRA, (II) DRA - intertwined with health issues and physical limitations and (III) A changed belly – on self-image & social interactions. The mothers experienced uncertainties and frustration when trying to learn about DRA. The limited knowledge of the condition made it hard to differentiate if the experienced symptoms were caused by presence of DRA or from other health issues. Several mothers felt misunderstood. Conclusion DRA is a multifaceted condition affecting many aspects of day-to-day life in various dimensions, like physical, emotional, and social. This study contributes to a wider understanding of living with DRA, which might guide healthcare professionals in providing support for mothers with this condition.

Object: The focus on the pregnant and postpartum female body in terms of health, physical function and appearance is greatly increasing. The aim of this article is to explore the meaning of the pregnancy and postpartum period for women’s experiences with and consciousness of their body, in a time characterized by certain types of body fixation as well as the increasing role of social media. Methods: Methodologically, the study is rooted in the hermeneutic tradition. Semi-structured individual interviews of 6 women, aged 20-30 years, who gave birth to their first child 3-9 months ago. Audiofile, transcribed and analyzed using thematic analysis. A phenomenological understanding of body and health as well as cultural theory is central to the interpretation of womens’ experiences and thoughts. Results: The study brings knowledge about the womens’ ambivalent relationship with their bodies, where the goal is to fulfill the claims of motherhood, take care of themselves and look good. A strongly objectification of their own body during this phase, and an experience of losing control of their body, is central findings. They also give insight in a society that promotes and cultivates perfection, and the exposure of others happiness affect them in many ways. At the same time, they experience motherhood as a new identity, that releases them from some aspects of the social pressure. Conclusion: The womens’ stories strengthen the knowledge of how going through pregnancy and maternity can be challenging, also in new ways. Social media contributes to a certain type of body image, also for the pregnant and postpartum female body subject. The study brings insight to some partly new issues that are relevant to physiotherapists’ practice.

Abstract Background Binge Eating Disorder (BED) is the most common eating disorder. Patients with BED are often not diagnosed, nor offered adequate specific treatment. A great number of those who receive recommended treatment do not recover over time. More knowledge about central aspects of BED, and treatments that specifically target such aspects is needed. Previous research has linked body experience to the development and maintenance of eating disorders, as well as influencing treatment results and the risk of relapse. The aim of this study was to explore how patients with BED experience Basic Body Awareness Therapy (BBAT), which is a psychomotor physiotherapy treatment addressing body experience. Method In this phenomenological study, we interviewed two patients with BED in depth during and after treatment. Video observations of treatment sessions and logs written by the patients were used as supporting data. The analysis was guided by Van Manen’s hermeneutic phenomenology. Results A meaning structure was identified: “On the way from the body as a problem to the body as a possibility.” The two participants that besides BED also had a history of childhood trauma, perceived BBAT as a process of getting to know their own bodies in new ways, and described that the way they related to their own body changed as did aspects of their way of being. These changes were prominent when the participants described emotions, movement, pain, calmness, and self-experience, and interwoven with relational aspects as well as practices in everyday life. Conclusion The present results indicate that BBAT stimulated body experience in a way that opened new possibilities for two participants with BED, and hence that BBAT can improve the health status of BED patients also suffering from childhood trauma.

The article focuses on social educators' reflections on their own professional practice in encounters with people with intellectual disability receiving services. Drawing on Interpersonal Process Recall, a video-assisted method, together with a focus group interview, the study explores the experiences from in-situ encounters of five social educators employed in a Norwegian municipality. The key findings are that they view relationship-building as integral to their work, they grant primacy to the ideal of autonomy and they strive towards realizing this in their daily work. The study however displays how these emphases might lead to dilemmas, especially between the wish to support the service users' self-determination and the urge to protect them from harm. Of special note was how the service users' increasing use of social media was perceived as a particular challenge for social educators, who were left with an experience of being unable to protect.

Background: Research on the treatment of patients with eating disorders is comprehensive, but little exists on treatments that are based on bodily experience. This is despite the fact that this is an illness that is closely associated with the body. The aim of this study was to look at the contribution of psychomotor physiotherapy in the treatment of patients with an eating disorder, seen from the therapist perspective. Method: Semi-structured interviews with therapists in the same team were carried out at a special unit for eating disorders. Psychomotor physiotherapist, psychologist, psychiatrist and specialist nurse. The analysis was conducted using systematic text condensation. Findings: The findings consist of two main topics: I. The contribution of the psychomotor physiotherapist to the treatment: ‘the body expert’, with the following subtopics: Working directly on the body: About going straight to the core; and Dissemination of knowledge about the body and training. II. The treatment team: Interdisciplinary cooperation in practice, with the following subtopics: About treatment teams, treatment meetings and treatment content; and Cooperation based on common understanding and equality. Conclusion: Psychomotor physiotherapy contributed something that is essential to, different from and complementary to the other approaches in the interdisciplinary team in the treatment of patients with eating disorders. The body-oriented approach was associated with ‘getting straight to the core of the matter’ and was therefore considered important.

Purpose: In this study, we explore the lived experiences of chronic illness in four groups of patients; children with asthma, adolescents with diabetes, young adults with depression, and adult patients with chronic, obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Persons living with chronic illness are often designated as vulnerable. This study builds on the assumption that being vulnerable belongs to being human, and that vulnerability also might entail strength and possibilities for growth. Methods: A narrative analysis was undertaken to illuminate how experiences of vulnerability were narrated across the four patient groups, presenting four individual stories, one from each of the patient groups. Results/conclusion: The stories illuminate how living with a chronic illness implies differing capabilities and capacities dependent on the specific condition. At the same time the stories point to how various abilities and challenges in living with chronic illness can be alleviated or seen as resources. Considered together, the stories underscore how ´finding ways to carry on´ in chronic illness requires interpretational work. By calling upon resources among significant others, in the surroundings and in oneself, the narrator can find ways of interpreting living with chronic illness that might open towards a hopeful future.

BackgroundKnowledge about non-surgical weight loss (WL) is scarce among people with severe obesity (SO). Lifestyle changes are primarily self-driven, occasionally accompanied by professional guidance and weight-management support. Weight regain and intervention discontinuation are common challenges among guidance and support programmes. In the current study, we describe a model of meaningful strategies for maintaining WL after SO based on the experiences of successful cases.MethodsAiming to investigate the experiences of WL and weight loss maintenance (WLM) (≥5 years) following SO, we designed a qualitative study. Ten adults of Norwegian ethnicity, eight women and two men aged from 27 to 59, participated in individual in-depth interviews. We recruited participants living in rural districts and cities across all four regions of Norway. The interviews concentrated on participants’ experiences of losing weight and maintaining a lower weight over the long term. The transcripts were analysed with a rigorous method for thematic cross-case analysis, namely, systematic text condensation (STC).ResultsParticipants identified four experiential themes at the core of long-term WLM: (a) Owning the decision, (b) Creating self-reinforcement, (c) Sustaining a lifestyle-forming identity, and (d) Selecting support appropriate to one’s own situation. These core themes represent the intentional level, functioning both as the foundation of and the momentum for sustaining WL. On the behavioural level, participants continued to take action for change, obtain results, record and reflect on their efforts and milestones, observe what worked and felt good, and receive recognition from others, thereby realising changes.ConclusionBased on these results, we propose a model of WLM after SO, suggesting that practices toward WLM on the behavioural level achieve meaning and sustainability through their relationship with a core intentional level found across participants’ experiences. One implication is that the relationship between the intentional and behavioural levels might be more meaningful when discussing long-term WLM than the behaviours themselves.

Background: The researcher role is highly debated in qualitative research. This article concerns the researcher-researched relationship. Methods: A group of health science researchers anchored in various qualitative research traditions gathered in reflective group discussions over a period of two years. Results: Efforts to establish an anti-authoritarian relationship between researcher and researched, negotiation of who actually “rules” the research agenda, and experiences of shifts in “inferior” and “superior” knowledge positions emerged as central and intertwined themes throughout the discussions. The dual role as both insider and outsider, characteristic of qualitative approaches, seemed to lead to power relations and researcher vulnerability which manifested in tangible ways. Conclusion: Shifting positions and vulnerability surfaced in various ways in the projects. They nonetheless indicated a number of similar experiences which can shed light on the researcher-researched relationship. These issues could benefit from further discussion in the qualitative health research literature.

Fewer men than women with severe obesity undergo bariatric surgery for weight loss, and knowledge about men's situation after surgery, beyond medical status, is lacking. Our aim was to explore men's experiences with life after bariatric surgery from a long-term perspective. We conducted in-depth interviews with 13 men, aged 28–60 years, between 5 and 7 years after surgery. The analysis was inspired by Giorgi's phenomenological method. We found that agency was pivotal for how the men understood themselves and their lives after surgery. Weight loss meant regaining opportunities for living and acting in unrestricted and independent daily lives, yet surgery remained a radical treatment with complex consequences. Turning to surgery had involved conceptualizing their own body size as illness, which the men had resisted doing for years. After surgery, the rapid and major weight loss and the feelings of being exhausted, weak, and helpless were intertwined. The profound intensity of the weight loss process took the men by surprise. Embodying weight loss and change involved an inevitable renegotiating of experiences connected to the large body. Having bariatric surgery was a long-term process that seemed unfinished 5 years after surgery. Restrictions and insecurity connected to health and illness persist, despite successful weight loss and embodied change. Bariatric surgery initiated a complex and long-lasting life-changing process, involving both increased capacity for agency and illness-like experiences.

Purpose: The diagnosis of diabetes in pre-school children poses a number of unique challenges related to everyday responsibility, and the continuous need for supervision and caregiving. This may affect both the child’s and the parents’ perceived burden caused by the condition. The aim of the study was to explore the lived experience of being mothers and fathers of a child with type 1 diabetes aged 1 to 7 years. Methods: The study is rooted in an interpretive phenomenological methodology as described by van Manen. In-depth interviews were carried out to collect data. Findings. We were able to identify one essential theme across the interviews: Striving to live an ordinary family life, yet feeling and living very differently—with interrelated sub-themes: A life-changing situation, Always on guard, and Struggling to let go. Conclusion: Parents described a profoundly changed situation, and they were indeed striving to live like a “normal” family. They were in need of support from health care professionals at the outpatient clinic, not only support and supervision in regard to practical tasks, but also concerning handling a changed life situation and emotional reactions, especially in the first year after diagnosis.

Purpose: Losing weight and keeping it off for the long term is difficult. Weight regain is common. Experiences of successful non-surgical weight loss after severe obesity are largely unexplored. We know little about long-term weight loss processes, and how health care services can be of help to those living them. Methods: Drawing on in-depth interviews of 8 women and 2 men, the aim of this phenomenological study is to describe the experiences of adults who have been severely obese, who have lost weight and maintained weight loss for the long term (>5 years). Results: Findings show that after severe obesity, sustained weight loss has no endpoint, yet is always easy to end. Keeping weight off means committing to oneself, continuing profound changes and cultivating sensitivity towards oneself and others. A phenomenological understanding of sustained weight loss can inform professionals who deal with health issues and challenges occurring in the life of people leaving severe obesity.

This study is grounded in a phenomenological lifeworld perspective. It aims at providing rich descriptions of lived experience of the process of losing weight after obesity surgery. Two women participated in in-depth interviews four times each during the first postoperative year. Based on the women's experiences, a meaning structure—the ambivalence of losing weight after obesity surgery—was identified across the women's processes of change. This consisted of five core themes: movement and activity—freedom but new demands and old restraints; eating habits and digestion—the complexity of change; appearance—smaller, but looser; social relations—stability and change; and being oneself—vulnerability and self-assurance. These core themes changed over time in terms of dominance. The experience of ambivalence is discussed according to a phenomenological perspective of the body as lived experience.

This study explored the experiences of parents of children with cerebral palsy undergoing surgery as they describe them from a lived experience perspective. When children undergo surgical procedures, they have to stay at hospital for a long time, which represents a great challenge for the children as well as their parents. We collected data by using open-ended interviews with 12 parents of 9 children and analyzed these data in accordance with Max van Manen's methodological themes. Based on the parents’ stories, the essential theme is: At the edge of vulnerability—being parents at hospital to a child with CP undergoing surgery, which consisted of three subthemes: establishing trust, awareness of a child who cannot speak, and sensing bodily reactions. Parents experienced demanding challenges as they entered the hospital, in a situation that meant both familiarity and unfamiliarity. Judgments about how to care for the child relied on what they normally did. Sitting bedside for hours and days, thoughts about the legitimacy of letting their child go through the suffering surgery were tormenting the parents. They felt vulnerable and very much dependent on health care workers’ competence and at the same time doubting them in seeing and taking care of their child's specific needs. It was experienced as an ambivalent situation, and even more so for the parents of a child without speech. The findings indicate that establishing trust implies being met at an existential level and a deeply felt need for health care workers that are really engaged in taking care of their child and their parents.

Aim: To explore the experiences of parents of infants with CP, who took part in a program with periods of frequent physiotherapy. Material: Parents of five infants aged 6-9 months with CP (five mothers and two fathers), who had participated in two 4-weeks periods of physiotherapy five days a week, interrupted by eight weeks without therapy. Method: Semi structured and retrospective interviews. Result: Three themes emerged: Being parents of infants newly diagnosed with CP, Experiences with the participation in frequent periods of physiotherapy, and The childrens change in motor functions. Becoming parents of children with CP was described as a demanding process of adaptation. The parents had many questions about the future, and they did not know what to expect. They experienced the participation in periods with daily therapy as useful, they felt more confident and had learned much about handling and how to stimulate their children. The parents clearly experienced changes in their childrens motor function, without being able to link these changes to specific periods. Implication for praxis: The parents of children newly diagnosed with CP seem to need a lot of support and consulting both to increase parent-empowerment and to learn handling and stimulation. Frequent physiotherapy may provide the kind of support and knowledge they ask for.

Aims: To explore the experiences of people on sick leave and their supervisors with regard to the handling of sick leave, cooperation with doctors and with The Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV) in an Including work-life enterprise. Design: Exploratory focus-group interviews. Material: Interview responses were collected for seventeen persons on sick leave (three focus groups) and five supervisors (one focus group) in a office workplace with 1 500 employees. Results: The core issue raised by those on sick leave was their desire to be treated with respect and understanding. This applied to their relations with supervisors, doctors and NAV employees. Supervisors focused on routines and guidelines associated with the follow-up of those on sick leave. Those on sick leave were positive to the supervisors will to adjust their work during the leave period, but it also could be a strain since it often resulted in more work for their colleagues. Both groups found it difficult to handle sick leave based on unidentified medical problems. Implications: The results may imply that the quality in communication between employees on sick leave and their supervisors is a key to a better handling of sick leave. Another key might be that supervisors seek out and get more education from NAV about their responsibilities.

Weight loss surgery is commonly regarded as improving individuals’ health and social life, and resulting in a happier and more active life for those defined as “morbidly obese.” However, some researchers have started to doubt whether these positive outcomes apply to everyone and this article explores this doubt further. More specifically, we focus on the experiences of women whose life situation became worse after weight loss surgery. The material draws on qualitative interviews of five Norwegian women undergoing the irreversible gastric bypass procedure. Our findings illustrate that the women lived seemingly “normal” lives prior to the surgery with few signs of illness. Worries about future illness as well as social stigma because of their body shape motivated them to undergo weight loss surgery. After the surgery, however, their situation was profoundly changed and their lives were dramatically restricted. Chronic pain, loss of energy, as well as feelings of shame and failure for having these problems not only limited their social lives but it also made them less physically active. In addition, they had difficulties taking care of their children, and functioning satisfactorily at work. Accordingly, the women gradually felt more “disabled,” regarding themselves as “outsiders” whose problems needed to be kept private. The results highlight some “subtle” consequences of weight loss surgery, particularly the shame and stigma experienced by those whose lives became dramatically worse. Living in a society where negative impacts of weight loss surgery are more or less neglected in research as well as in the public debate the women seemed to suffer in silence. Their problems were clearly present and felt in the body but not talked about and shared with others.

The aim of the study was to explore changes in gross motor function in children who participated in Project Intensive Habilitation (PIH) at Sørlandet Hospital HF, Kristiansand, Norway. Material and method: Two three year old children with cerebral palsy (hemiplegia or diplegia), participated in our case series study together with their parents. The parents were interviewed three times and the children assessed six times with the Gross Motor Functional Measure (GMFM 66, a 0-100 point scale) over a five months habilitation period. Intensive training was daily directed at the main aim «walking freely», set by parents and health professionals. The training alternated between group sessions in our hospital, and at home and in kindergarten with parents and local professionals. Results: The parents described important progress in their childs ability to transfer, but the aim «to walk independently» was not achieved. Improvement in GMFM-66 total scores from first to last test was circa 4 points for both children, but as the confidence intervals were overlapping, the change might be due to measurement errors. Conclusion: The study indicates some improvement in the childrens gross motor function in connection with participation in Project Intensive Habilitation. However, we cannot know how much change would have occurred without the intensive training.

On the basis of a phenomenological body perspective, typical features of today brought into the light by the youth’s own experiences about the body, might be of relevance to how we understand the increasing self-report of ill health. A typical feature of today might for instance be the conception of the shapeable body which can be transformed and remodelled to function as an image of the self and tell the story of who you are as a person. The body, its appearance and capacities, is more closely associated with the experience of being successful than previous years. The body is exposed to corrective looks and comments on several levels in modern culture. Both internal and external pressures to be slim, pretty, clever, strong, healthy and so on are strong. The belief in and idea about shapeability might lead many into a regime of controlling and disciplining the less desirable about your own body. Perhaps are the negative tendencies we notice in youth’s experiences of their health «gossip » about the social and cultural features in their way of life? In preventing and health-bringing efforts, emphasis is on the positive effect of life-long physical activity. Physiotherapists wish to stimulate developing and to take care of a healthy and strong body through displaying joy of movement. It is at the same time of value to encourage a carefree forgetfulness in relation to own body as a possibility that life it self inherit.

In this article we explore women’s experiences of “dumping” following weight loss surgery. The empirical material is based on individual interviews with 22 Norwegian women. To further analyze their experiences, we build primarily on the phenomenologist Drew Leder`s notion of the “inner body.” Additionally, Simone de Beauvoir and Merleau-Ponty’s perspectives of the lived body occupy a prime framework for shedding light on different dimensions of bodily changes. The following three core themes were identified: Experiences of illness in conjunction with eating; Learning to relate to changes in the inner body and; Feelings of losing and regaining control. In different, though interconnected ways, these themes encompass an ongoing challenge in the women’s lives after the surgery: namely their efforts to establish new eating habits while at the same time working hard to relate to their changed and changing inner body, and especially to the phenomenon of “dumping”. The results points to a dilemma: namely that the gastric bypass procedure is an operation that irreversibly alters the anatomy and physiology of a healthy stomach, whereas the individual’s eating habits cannot be situated in or reduced to a particular organ, but are endemic to the lived body and its history. This insight might be of importance in the understanding of the complexity of the changes and challenges the women go through after weight loss surgery.

The purpose of present study was to investigate important measurement properties of the Body Awareness Rating Questionnaire (BARQ) subscales: Function; Mood; Feelings; and Awareness. Samples of 50 patients with prolonged musculoskeletal pain and psychosomatic disorders, and 50 gender and age-matched healthy persons participated in the study. Relative (ICC 2,1) and absolute reliability (Sw) were calculated. Construct validity was examined by testing hypothesis using Pearson ( r) or Spearman rank (rs) correlation. Discriminate ability was examined using a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, the area under the curve (aROC) being the measure of discriminative validity. All patients reported more or less improvement after treatment, using the Patient Global Impression of Change (PGIC) as an external indicator of important change. Responsiveness to important change was therefore examined by one-way repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA), relating change scores of BARQ subscales to the PGIC categories. Relative and absolute reliability values were within recommended limits for all four subscales. Construct and discriminate validity was indicated for Function, Feelings and Awareness, but not for Mood. Responsiveness was indicated for the subscales Function and Awareness, but not for Feelings and Mood. Further research is needed to complement the subscales of BARQ, found with appropriate measurement properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]