In the company of women: enacting autonomy within the perinatal nursing relationship
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Lisa Goldberg
- Source
- Nursing ethics. 10(6)
- Subject
- media_common.quotation_subject
Decision Making
Mothers
Context (language use)
Patient Advocacy
0603 philosophy, ethics and religion
Nurse's Role
03 medical and health sciences
Neonatal Nursing
Situated
Agency (sociology)
Health care
Medicine
Humans
Narrative
Philosophy, Nursing
Models, Nursing
media_common
030504 nursing
business.industry
Interpretation (philosophy)
Parturition
06 humanities and the arts
Issues, ethics and legal aspects
Embodied cognition
Personal Autonomy
Women's Rights
Female
060301 applied ethics
Patient Participation
0305 other medical science
business
Nurse-Patient Relations
Social psychology
Autonomy
- Language
- ISSN
- 0969-7330
An understanding of autonomy has important significance in North American health care. Although a respect for autonomy is necessary to protect the self-determination and agency of birthing women in hospital settings, I suggest that enactments of autonomy that are independent of relationships offer only an incomplete interpretation of such a vital concept. In this article I explore an understanding of autonomy situated within the context of a relational birthing narrative. In so doing, autonomy becomes conceptualized as contextual and concrete, giving rise to an embodied view of the birthing woman.