title: Supportive care for women with unexplained recurrent miscarriage: patients' perspectives.
abstract: BACKGROUND Supportive care is currently the only 'therapy' that can be offered to women with unexplained recurrent miscarriage (RM). What these women themselves prefer as supportive care in their next pregnancy has never been substantiated. Therefore the aim of this study was to explore what women with unexplained RM prefer as supportive care during their next pregnancy. METHODS We performed explorative, semi-structured, in-depth interviews. The interviews were performed with 15 women with unexplained RM who were actively seeking conception. All interviews were conducted by telephone. The interviews were fully transcribed and two researchers independently identified text segments from the transcribed interviews and categorized them in the appropriate domain. RESULTS Women identified 20 different supportive care options; 16 of these options were preferred for their next pregnancy. Examples of the preferred supportive care were early and frequently repeated ultrasounds, βHCG monitoring, practical advice concerning life style and diet, emotional support in the form of counselling, a clear policy for the upcoming 12 weeks and medication. The four supportive care options that were not preferred by the women were admittance to a hospital ward at the same gestational age as previous miscarriages, Complementary Alternative Medicine, ultrasound every other day and receiving supportive care from their general practitioner. CONCLUSIONS Our study identified several relevant preferences for supportive care in women with unexplained RM. Many of these can be offered by the gynaecologist and will help in guaranteeing high-quality patient-centred care.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Reproductive Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (H4-240), Academic Medical Centre, University of Amsterdam, PO Box 22700, 1100 DE Amsterdam, The Netherlands. a.m.musters@amc.uva.nl
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Musters
authors.forename: E F
authors.initials: EF
authors.lastname: Taminiau-Bloem
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: van den Boogaard
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: van der Veen
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Goddijn
mesh_terms: D000026:Abortion, Habitual / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*; D000328:Adult; D001290:Attitude; D018997:Chorionic Gonadotropin, beta Subunit, Human / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009774:Obstetrics / Q000379:methods; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D018802:Patient-Centered Care / Q000379:methods; D011247:Pregnancy; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000379:methods; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013689:Telephone; D016216:Ultrasonography, Prenatal / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D018997:Chorionic Gonadotropin, beta Subunit, Human