Re-enchanting Birth: The Need for Spiritual Care in Childbirth
Amy DeBaets, PhD., Assistant Professor, Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine
Spiritual care is routinely provided in most hospitals in North America to help patients and their families in addressing issues of meaning, identity, and faith during times of serious illness and death. This includes situations in which women experience stillbirth or neonatal demise. But illness and death are not the only spiritually-significant life events that take place in hospitals. The vast majority of births in North America also take place in hospitals, and women have noted that the births of their children are events of significant spiritual meaning for them. However, spiritual care is not routinely offered in most hospitals to women whose children are born healthy.
Recognizing the need for the provision of spiritual care in the birth process is not intended to overburden chaplains, who often have more patients and families dealing with life-threatening situations than they can visit in a day. But beginning to think about how the healthcare system might meet this need takes into account several significant points: 1) women frequently identify birth as a major life event of spiritual significance for them (Crowther and Hall, 2015); 2) more young women than ever are not identifying with any particular religious or spiritual tradition (currently estimated by PRRI at about 40% (Cooper et al., 2016)) and so do not have clergy or religious communities with whom to process the spiritual significance of birth; and 3) there is an increasing recognition of the need for women to have continuous support during and after labor and delivery, as it is a time of key vulnerability and meaningfulness, and there is no reason to exclude spiritual care from that system of support (Hodnett et al., 2013). The routine provision of spiritual care may also aid women and their families to feel a lessened sense of judgment and guilt around their choices and complications in the birth process, including whether they have medical interventions, how they feed their babies, and how much time they can take to be home after the birth.
This presentation will argue for the need for spiritual care as a routine aspect of the birth process. I will identify some of the specific needs for spiritual care that women giving birth have identified, explain the importance of providing avenues for spiritual care for women who do not identify as traditionally religious or who do not have a connection to a spiritual community, and examine some possible avenues for the provision of such care in non-emergent situations.
Spiritual care is routinely provided in most hospitals in North America to help patients and their families in addressing issues of meaning, identity, and faith during times of serious illness and death. This includes situations in which women experience stillbirth or neonatal demise. But illness and death are not the only spiritually-significant life events that take place in hospitals. The vast majority of births in North America also take place in hospitals, and women have noted that the births of their children are events of significant spiritual meaning for them. However, spiritual care is not routinely offered in most hospitals to women whose children are born healthy.
Recognizing the need for the provision of spiritual care in the birth process is not intended to overburden chaplains, who often have more patients and families dealing with life-threatening situations than they can visit in a day. But beginning to think about how the healthcare system might meet this need takes into account several significant points: 1) women frequently identify birth as a major life event of spiritual significance for them (Crowther and Hall, 2015); 2) more young women than ever are not identifying with any particular religious or spiritual tradition (currently estimated by PRRI at about 40% (Cooper et al., 2016)) and so do not have clergy or religious communities with whom to process the spiritual significance of birth; and 3) there is an increasing recognition of the need for women to have continuous support during and after labor and delivery, as it is a time of key vulnerability and meaningfulness, and there is no reason to exclude spiritual care from that system of support (Hodnett et al., 2013). The routine provision of spiritual care may also aid women and their families to feel a lessened sense of judgment and guilt around their choices and complications in the birth process, including whether they have medical interventions, how they feed their babies, and how much time they can take to be home after the birth.
This presentation will argue for the need for spiritual care as a routine aspect of the birth process. I will identify some of the specific needs for spiritual care that women giving birth have identified, explain the importance of providing avenues for spiritual care for women who do not identify as traditionally religious or who do not have a connection to a spiritual community, and examine some possible avenues for the provision of such care in non-emergent situations.