title: Maternal tasks of uncertain motherhood.
abstract: A longitudinal, phenomenological study was carried out to gain understanding of what it was like for women to be in a high-risk perinatal situation. Twenty-seven women participated in the study during which focused, unstructured interviews were conducted throughout their experience. Hermeneutic methods were applied to the 174 interviews and 13 diaries collected. A serendipitous finding revealed that women in high-risk situations work on the same developmental tasks as described by Rubin in 1975. However, these tasks are altered by the uncertainty of attaining motherhood inherent in the high-risk situation. The alterations in the tasks are described in this paper. The importance of Rubin's work as basic clinical research for maternity nursing is underlined by this finding.
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Stainton
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: McNeil
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Harvey
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006040:Goals; D006803:Human Development; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D016389:Maternal-Child Nursing; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications / Q000523:psychology*; D012649:Self Concept