Perceptions And Experiences Of Aboriginal Women On Smoking During Pregnancy In Sydney

Background

Discuss about the Impact of Smoking In Health During Pregnancy.

Smoking while pregnant is amongst the leading cause to the high maternal and infant mortality rate in Sydney. Moreover, it is the primary cause to the abnormal birth weight and the health disorders among the babies. In Australia, tobacco smoking incidents among aboriginal residents has been consistently higher in comparison to their non-aboriginal peers (Gould et al., 2013). According the author, females in the reproductive phase are increasingly susceptible to more detrimental effects from smoking when they get become pregnant (Ploit and Beck, 2017, p.544). In Australia, smoking is regarded to be the leading risk factor for expectant women and newborn children (Gould et al., 2017). Smoking women often give birth to children who have long-standing deleterious effects even when they become adults, therefore the aim of this research plan aims to address on the experiences and perceptions towards smoking of the indigenous women on the Acute Inpatient Psychiatric unit in Sydney  South West Local health District , New South Wales.

The objective of the research is to provide knowledge to the pregnant women to enable them acquire more knowledge and develop motivation to integrate it into their behavior (Ploit and Beck, 2017, p.544). Thus, this research would help to verify the knowledge acquired in order to understand how pregnant women in less advantaged socioeconomic backgrounds from New South Wales differ from women from high socioeconomic background in their perceptions towards smoking during pregnancy.

The research question for this research study is as follows;

1. What are the perceptions and experiences of the indigenous women of the Acute Adult Psychiatric Inpatient Unit in Sydney South West Area Mental Health Service facility towards smoking during their pregnancy?

The study with utilize phenomenological design of qualitative research. This means that lived experience of the less advantaged women from New South Wales would be used to create themes (Coleman et al 2015). The use of a phenomenological design of qualitative approach would be appropriate for such exploratory research as it allowed the identification of their representations from the discourse of the first concerned (Coleman et al 2015). The women would be interviewed through semi-directed interviews during which they would be free to express themselves. The context of maternity supervision would be also addressed through group interviews with caregivers working with prenatal clients (Coleman et al 2015). Although such an approach has no claim to statistical representativeness, it does offer key elements for understanding a problem such as smoking during pregnancy.

This research study will focus on the relevant variables such as the level of income, educational back ground, drug abuse history, family dynamic history, childhood experiences, and obviously the Mental illness (Cheng et al 2015, p. 356). In this research the study variables which would be measured are the aboriginal women experiences on smoking and perceptions of the aboriginal women towards smoking.  On the first study variable is on the experiences of the aboriginal women which would measure aspects on the motivator which could prompt these women to stop smoking bit there are issues which hinders them to do so (Tong et al 2015). Thus, in this research it would identify what are their experiences which could hinder them to quit on smoking. There are barriers which would be discussed are smoking dependency, stress, living in the smoking environment, and the lack to the social support to quit (Small, Porr, Swab & Murray, 2018). These aspects would be explored in the details within the research study. On the second variable, it is based on the perceptions of the aboriginal women. The perception is in regards to how the women feel and their varied preferences to smoke particularly during pregnancy.

Objective

The study population for this research is the indigenous women with existing mental illness of an Acute Psychiatric Adult inpatient unit who has history of poly-substance abuse and addiction to smoking along with past experience of pregnancy. As per the research question the focused group of population   is the indigenous women with experience of pregnancy who are habituated to the smoking would be enlisted.

The participant who are included in this would include 10 women who were smoking are age. The resultant collection of the studies which are used in this research would comprise both randomized trials and nonrandomized studies of aboriginal women who were smoking during pregnancy. In this research it utilizes various eligibility criteria which show the targeted population as the aboriginal women living in Sydney. On this research the language used in the research is English and the time frame to undertake on this research would be within 7 months until the final research has been done.

The sample of this research study would be comprised of 200 aboriginal women who are among Sydney mental facility. The women who are selected for this research have been smoking currently or in the past when they were pregnant.

Purposive sampling would be used as it is more convenient way to recruit particular group of indigenous women with mental illness habituated of smoking has experienced the pregnancy, as the researcher will be involved in selection of specific clients to take part to get rich information (Polit and Beck 2017). A letter of consent could be delivered to the selected populated group    with the sample copy of the questionnaire that would be utilized within this research together with the protocol of the researcher. A letter would be also being addressed to the City Health Officer in Sydney to be able to acquire endorsement and permit to carry out a research in the selected community in Sydney. As an acute Care unit, the researcher’s role will be introducing the purpose of the study to the consumer especially after recovery from their mental illness prior to the Discharge. The interview will be conducted after taking the consent.

Data collection

The data collection would be conducted throughout one year to study the perceptions and the experiences for the specific group of population with indigenous background. As the researcher is the Mental Health care clinician would organize the group session to encourage participants to be involved in collecting data.

Research Design

Data Analysis

 Once the data is obtained, qualitative analysis would be carried out in order to determine the major themes that can differentiate pregnant women from less privileged setting from the women from high socioeconomic status in regard to smoking during pregnancy (Banderali et al 2015). Thematic analysis would be conducted in order to ascertain key themes from each group of participants. The themes would then be compared to ascertain whether different socioeconomic statuses influence the smoking habits during pregnancy. The results would be presented in such a way as to highlight the differences and convergences noted in women’s discourse according to their socio-economic background (Polit and Beck 2017).

Method to use to collect data

The data collecting method which would be used for this research study is questionnaires. The questionnaires would be sent to the participants for the research since there are large number so that to save time and money for the researcher (Dodds et al 2016). Moreover, individuals tend to be more truthful while they are responding to the questionnaire which touches on the controversial issues especially smoking while pregnant. This is due to the fact that their responses are anonymous.

Context

The contexts which would be used for this research study are comprehensive searches which were conducted for the published studies particularly in the academic database (Tong 2016). Moreover, the searches would comprise of the studies which are carried globally on the same research question. These researches used were measured in the same way as this research study. Additionally, the samples are much comparable, and there is contextual data which is available.

Researcher role

When it comes to the qualitative studies, the role of the researcher is quite different. This is in the sense that the research is regarded as an instrument to the collection of the data. This means that the data is usually mediated via the human instrument, as compared to the inventories, or the questionnaires (Ekblad, Korkeila&Lehtonen, 2015). In order to fulfill on this, the consumers of the research should know about the human instrument. This means that the researcher should describe on the relevant aspects of self which include assumptions or biasness, expectations, along with experiences in order to qualify their ability to conduct the research. Another role is that the researcher keeps the study journal explicating personal reactions and reflections, in addition to insights into the own and past (Xie et al 2014). A researcher function would be to ask probing questions, after that listens, thinks and ask more probing questions to be able to obtain a deeper level to the conversation.

Study Variables

Experience of interest

The experience of interest in this research study is to look the perceptions and the experiences of the aboriginal women of a mental health care facility towards smoking during pregnancy in Sydney (Pineles, Hsu, Park &Samet, 2016). The focus is on the women who have been smoking currently or in the past in Sydney. This is the experience of interest within this research plan.

Analysis of the data collected

In this research proposed study the analysis would be done using survey results in which there would be a reported behavior and the outcomes to the perceptions and the experiences of the aboriginal women who have been smoking while they are pregnant.  The data would be collected in form of numbers from the open headed questionnaires which were issued to the participants.

Rigour

In this research rigour has been important to ensure that there is validity on the data is ensured. There are numerous methods which have been developed to ensure this aspect(Smedberg et al 2015). The method which is employed is ensuring there is representativeness of cases, which include the usage of mixed methods to support the aspect of generalization as well as recognition to the merit of the representatives’ particularly random sampling method that has been used.

 Trustworthiness

When it comes to the aspect it comprises concepts such as credibility, transferability, dependability as well as conformability (Dolan et al 2016). This research would ensure that there are persistent observations, generalization of the study finding to the other situations as well as context.

Study limitations for the study

In this research study, there would be some limitations such as;

• Poor quality data collection particularly if there has been poor construction of the questionnaires, which might fail to give individuals opportunity to record on the data accurately (Xie et al 2014).
• Poor quality of the data analysis. This might arise from drawing of the conclusions which are unsupported from the data.

Ethical implications for the study

The major ethical implications which would be encountered in this research are as follows;

• Informed consent: This is the major ethical issue which would likely be encountered in thus research. This seeks to incorporate of the autonomous people through self determination.
• Respect to anonymity and confidentiality: It is important for the researcher to protect information given by the respondent and should always protect the subject identity.

References

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Ekblad, M., Korkeila, J., &Lehtonen, L. (2015). Smoking during pregnancy affects foetal brain    development. Acta paediatrica, 104(1), 12-18.

Cheng, D., Salimi, S., Terplan, M., & Chisolm, M. S. (2015). Intimate partner violence and  maternal cigarette smoking before and during pregnancy. Obstetrics and gynecology, 125(2), 356.

Coleman, T., Chamberlain, C., Davey, M. A., Cooper, S. E., & Leonardi-Bee, J. (2015).  Pharmacological interventions for promoting smoking cessation during pregnancy.

Dolan, C. V., Geels, L., Vink, J. M., van Beijsterveldt, C. E. M., Neale, M. C., Bartels, M., &  Boomsma, D. I. (2016). Testing causal effects of maternal smoking during pregnancy on     offspring’s externalizing and internalizing behavior. Behavior genetics, 46(3), 378-388.

Dodds, L., Woolcott, C. G., Weiler, H., Spencer, A., Forest, J. C., Armson, B. A., &Giguère, Y. (2016). Vitamin D status and gestational diabetes: effect of smoking status during       pregnancy. Paediatric and perinatal epidemiology, 30(3), 229-237.

Gould, G. S., Bovill, M., Chiu, S., Bonevski, B., &Oldmeadow, C. (2017). Exploring an adapted Risk Behaviour Diagnosis Scale among Indigenous Australian women who had experiences of smoking during pregnancy: a cross-sectional survey in regional New South Wales, Australia. BMJ open, 7(5), e015054.

Gould, G. S., Watt, K., Cadet-James, Y., & Clough, A. R. (2015). Using the risk behaviour diagnosis scale to understand Australian Aboriginal smoking—a cross-sectional validation survey in regional New South Wales. Preventive medicine reports, 2, 4-9.

Pineles, B. L., Hsu, S., Park, E., &Samet, J. M. (2016). Systematic review and meta-analyses of perinatal death and maternal exposure to tobacco smoke during pregnancy. American        journal of epidemiology, 184(2), 87-97.

Small, S., Porr, C., Swab, M., & Murray, C. (2018). Experiences and cessation needs of    Indigenous women who smoke during pregnancy: a systematic review of qualitative  evidence. JBI database of systematic reviews and implementation reports, 16(2), 385-    452.

Smedberg, J., Lupattelli, A., Mårdby, A. C., Øverland, S., &Nordeng, H. (2015). The relationship between maternal depression and smoking cessation during pregnancy—a       cross-sectional study of pregnant women from 15 European countries. Archives of women’s mental health, 18(1), 73-84.

Tong, V. T., Althabe, F., Alemán, A., Johnson, C. C., Dietz, P. M., Berrueta, M., … & Prenatal Tobacco Cessation Intervention Collaborative:. (2015). Accuracy of self?reported         smoking cessation during pregnancy. Acta obstetricia et gynecologicaScandinavica, 94(1), 106-111.

 Tong, V. T., Farr, S. L., Bombard, J., D’Angelo, D., Ko, J. Y., & England, L. J. (2016). Smoking before and during pregnancy among women reporting depression or anxiety. Obstetrics and gynecology, 128(3), 562.

Xie, C., Wen, X., Niu, Z., Ding, P., Liu, T., He, Y., … & Chen, W. (2014). Comparison of   secondhand smoke exposure measures during pregnancy in the development of a clinical prediction model for small-for-gestational-age among non-smoking Chinese pregnant  women. Tobacco control, tobaccocontrol-2014.