title: The body boundary experience of women in labor: a framework for care.
abstract: This paper discusses the relevance of a body boundary framework for considering the nursing care needs of the woman during labor. Careful analysis of the woman's behaviors during labor reveals three distinct body boundary-oriented phases. These include: (a) a controlled-boundary intact phase, (b) a regressive-boundary permeable phase, and (c) a desperate-boundary diffuse phase. The first two phases occur in all labors; the last phase occurs when the woman is unable to remain in control of her body because of extreme body boundary distortions. The primary nursing care objective for the laboring woman should be to help the woman maintain a sense of body boundary intactness throughout her labor. Achieving this important objective requires that the nurse be aware of when and how the woman uses the nurse's presence to foster feelings of boundary intactness. The nurse involved in the care of the woman in labor must be an interaction specialist. She needs to be adapt at reading the woman's body cues, in understanding the meaning of her behaviors, and in providing care at appropriate times using appropriate contact modalities. Offering the woman help and understanding based on knowledge of body boundary changes during labor optimize the woman's ability to endure and will enhance her chances for feeling positively about herself in the childbearing endeavor.
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D001294:Attitude to Health; D001828:Body Image; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007743:Labor, Obstetric; D010550:Personal Space; D011247:Pregnancy; D013037:Spatial Behavior; D014590:Uterine Contraction