title: Korean immigrant women's lived experience of childbirth in the United States.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To understand Korean immigrant women's common experiences and practices of utilizing health care services in the United States during childbirth.
  
  
  METHODS
  A qualitative interpretive phenomenological research design.
  
  
  METHODS
  Recruitment was conducted through advertisement on the MissyUSA.com website, which is the largest online community for married Korean women who live in North America.
  
  
  METHODS
  A purposive sample of 15 Korean immigrant women who experienced childbirth in the United States within the past 5 years was recruited.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data were collected using semistructured telephone interviews and were analyzed using the Heideggerian hermeneutical methodology.
  
  
  RESULTS
  During childbirth in the United States, participants faced multifaceted barriers in unfamiliar sociocultural contexts yet maintained their own cultural heritages. They navigated the unfamiliar health care system and developed their own strategies to overcome barriers to health care access. Korean immigrant women actively sought health information on the Internet and through social networking during childbirth.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Korean immigrant women selectively accepted new cultural beliefs with some modifications from their own cultural contexts and developed their own distinct birth cultures. Understanding a particular culture and respecting women's traditions, beliefs, and practices about their childbirth could help nurses to provide culturally sensitive care.
authors.forename: Jin Young
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Seo
authors.forename: Wooksoo
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Suzanne S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Dickerson
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D001213:Asian / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003144:Communication Barriers; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D004522:Educational Status; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D066297:Hermeneutics; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008427:Maternal Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D020380:Needs Assessment; D036801:Parturition / Q000208:ethnology*; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000208:ethnology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012494:Sampling Studies; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Asian people/cultures; childbirth; health care utilization; hermeneutics; immigrants/migrants; lived experience