| Summary: | M.Cur. (Midwifery and Neonatal Nursing) === The infiltration of modern trends into black cultures, has allowed fathers to support mothers during labour. Only a limitednumber of fathers utilise this opportunity. Whether more will do so in future seemed in part to depend on the following: * how do black fathers experience their support to mothers during labour? * what can be done to encourage black fathers to support mothers during labour? The following aims were formulated: to explore and describe the experiences of black fathers concerning support during labour and to establish guidelines to encourage black fathers to support mothers during labour. This study was explored and described within the framework of the Nursing for the Whole Person Theory (ORU 1990; RAU 1992) which functions in an integrated biopsychosocial manner (body, mind, spirit) within the family and or community. The parameters of nursing and beliefs about man, health, illness and nursing are also described. A functional reasoning approach is followed, based on the Botes (1991) model for Nursing Research. The research design entailed an exploratory, descriptive, qualitative study, which is contextual to clinical nursing. Two groups of black fathers were purposively selected for the research study. Group one consisted of fathers who provided support to mother during labour and was selected from a private maternity hospital. Group two, consisted of fathers who did not provide support during labour, and was selected from a provincial hospital. Both hospitals are within the Gauteng province. A phenomenological approach to nursing research was utilized. Unstructured interviews were conducted with ten fathers. They were divided into two groups of five each. After analysis of data, follow-up interviews were conducted with two of the fathers included in the sample. Data was analyzed according to Kerlinger's (1986:476) method of content analysis. A literature control was undertaken in order to explore and describe the conclusions of other researchers and authors. The results from this study indicate that most of the fathers in Group one, experienced negative feelings of frightened, difficulty, helplessness and anxiety due to lack of information concerning childbirth. This is coupled with positive feelings such as excitement, nice, overwhelming and miracle. Most of the fathers in Group two, expressed a feeling of wanting to be there. Lack of information, fear and culture were identified as stumbling blocks. Conclusions were drawn and recommendations concerning nursing practice, nursing education and nursing research were made. Guidelines for encouragement of black fathers concerning support during labour were described.
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