HOW DO BLACK NULLIPAROUS WOMEN COGNITIVELY CONSTRUCT BIRTH?

A focused ethnography was conducted, based on Kleinman's (1981) anthropology of health care, to identify cognitive constructions about birth held by nulliparous urban African-American women in the Southwestern United States, and reconciliation of constructions with birth during postpartum. Semi-structured prenatal interviews of eleven low risk women and four postpartum interviews were completed. Atlas, ti assisted in thematic analysis and organization. Cognitive constructions grew from their mothers' ideas, and included "birth ispainful", followed by "birth damages you and/or the baby" and "birth changes you." Prenatally, women acknowledged birth as unknown beyond these themes. Women evaluated personal birth experiences using these maternal themes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]