Narrative Study of the Significance of Infertility and Its Treatment for Maternal Identity

ObjectiveTo explore how women who experienced infertility and underwent fertility treatments constructed maternal identities after they successfully gave birth.DesignNarrative qualitative study.SettingFinland, Scandinavia.ParticipantsTwenty-six previously infertile Finnish women who later conceived were recruited via social media, health clinics, and relevant informal support organizations.MethodsNarrative analysis was used to process written accounts and individual episodic interviews with each of the 26 women.ResultsFour different identity stories emerged from the data: Fractured Maternity, Pursuing Maternity, Learning Maternity, and Discovering Maternity. Infertility, its treatment, and childbirth were narrated as turning points in the participants’ life courses, but the significance of these turning points for maternal identity varied across the four stories.ConclusionThese findings have important implications for nursing practice. Health care professionals should be aware of the effects of previous long-standing infertility on the subsequent experience of motherhood so they can provide women with understanding, sufficient support, and appropriate interventions throughout the transition to motherhood.     

La pleine conscience incarnée : un concept unificateur entre les traditions orientales et occidentales de la pleine conscience

ObjectiveThe interest in mindfulness as a concept continues to grow as shown in the increase in the number of publications pertaining to mindfulness in the last four decades. This increase is also a reflection of the fact that the term “mindfulness” is currently used as an umbrella for a variety of approaches that assign different meanings to the same word. Although differences among varying conceptualizations and definitions of “mindfulness” have been previously highlighted, few efforts have attempted to compare these varying conceptual approaches as a means to address commonalties between them. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to review different conceptualizations of mindfulness in order to understand their common and distinctive components.MethodIn order to investigate commonalities and distinctions among different mindfulness conceptualizations, we conducted a thorough qualitative review of theoretical and empirical papers belonging to three approaches in mindfulness: Eastern Buddhist traditions, Western modern mindfulness meditation programs, and Langerian mindfulness. Each of these approaches is presented first at a conceptual level (i.e., how it defines mindfulness) and then at a practical level (i.e., how to operationalize mindfulness). Empirical research pertaining to the effectiveness of each approach is presented and discussed. As Buddhism incorporates different schools of thoughts, this paper focuses primarily on the conceptualization of mindfulness outlined within Theravada Buddhism. It operationalizes mindfulness through an engagement in intensive and daily meditative practice, which includes both concentrative and open-monitoring meditation. In addition, Buddhism includes a set of ethical principles. Western modern mindfulness meditation programs are conceptualized according to Kabat-Zinn and other western scholars. Definitions varied to some extent according to different scholars, each including a different set of components (e.g., attention, awareness, acceptance, nonjudgement, observation). Western modern mindfulness meditation programs are operationalized though the development and implementation of structured psychosomatic interventions, such as Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy. Langerian mindfulness is conceptualized as a general style or mode of functioning through which individuals actively reconstruct their environment by creating new categories or distinctions, and seeking multiple perspectives. Langer operationalized mindfulness through a set of sociocognitive tasks. The role of the body in these three approaches and more specifically the mind-body connection is highlighted through the analysis of clinical, behavioral, and neuroscientific research findings.Results and DiscussionDefinitions from both eastern and western approaches share self-regulation of attention and awareness as central common elements. Both attention and awareness processes increase interoceptive and exteroceptive body awareness and mind-body connection, therefore suggesting a role of embodiment in conceptualizing and operationalizing mindfulness across different approaches. We therefore introduce the new concept of Embodied Mindfulness as an integration of top-down and bottom-up processes and argue for its utility in the empirical study of mindfulness across the three conceptual approaches.ConclusionsThe new notion of embodied mindfulness integrates different conceptualizations of mindfulness by allowing a common understanding of the mechanisms of change across these conceptualizations. This new notion has also both research and clinical implications. This new notion suggests further emphasizing the body and mind-body connection in both studying/measuring mindfulness and in developing/validating clinical interventions.     

记忆抱怨主诉人群记忆障碍感知的质性研究

目的了解记忆抱怨主诉人群记忆障碍感知状况,为临床开展针对性护理干预提供思路。方法采用现象学研究方法,对15例记忆抱怨主诉个案进行深度访谈。结果记忆抱怨主诉人群存在负性记忆障碍感知,并可归纳为4个主题:盲目接受现实(宿命论),忽略社会支持(认为得不到他人的帮助),知识缺乏(缺乏改善记忆力或延缓记忆问题恶化的方法,对记忆问题感到不理解和困惑),消极的个人认知(记忆力减退是老化的标志;记忆下降是痴傻的表现)。结论记忆抱怨主诉人群存在负性记忆障碍感知。医护人员应了解记忆抱怨主诉人群记忆障碍感知来源,及早干预,帮助患者树立正确的记忆障碍感知体验,从而促进其健康相关行为方式的选择。     

Longitudinal association of egg intake frequency with cardiovascular disease in Chinese adults

Background and aimsReducing dietary cholesterol is generally acceptable for the prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Eggs are nutrient-dense and common food items across the world, while rich in cholesterol. The potential effects of egg intake on cardiovascular health remain uncertainty and have been under debate in past decades.Methods and resultsA nationwide cohort of 20,688 participants aged 16–110 years without CVD at baseline were derived from the China Family Panel Studies. Egg consumption was assessed by a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire. We adopted stratified Cox proportional hazards model with random intercepts for provinces to evaluate associations of egg intake with CVD incidence. During a median follow-up of 6.0 years, we identified 2395 total CVD incidence and mean egg consumption was 3 times/week. Egg intakes were associated lower risks of CVD incidence in the multivariate-adjusted model. Compared with the non-consumers, the corresponding HRs (95% confidence interval) for total CVD events were 0.84 (0.74–0.94) for 1–2 times per week, 0.78 (0.69–0.88) for 3–6/week, and 0.83 (0.72–0.95) for ≥7/week. Similar relationships were found in hypertension. Approximately non-linear relationships were observed between egg consumption with total CVD and hypertension incidence, identifying the lowest risk in 3–6 times/week. Subgroup analyses estimated lower risks of total CVD and hypertension in females only, with significant effect modification by sex (P for interaction = 0.008 and 0.020).ConclusionEgg consumption may be associated with lower risks of CVD incidence among Chinese adults. Our findings could have implications in CVD prevention and might be considered in the development of dietary guidelines.     

Being a gift- Multilingual healthcare professionals in neonatal care

BackgroundParents said that they sometimes wished they had a multilingual physician as an interpreter, because the physician would understand the child's care and treatment and share a language with the parents.AimTo understand and describe the lived experience of multilingual neonatal healthcare professionals dealing with interpreting in their workplace, performing as interpreters in addition to their regular work.MethodsInterviews with multilingual neonatal healthcare professionals and analysed using a phenomenological reflective lifeworld approach.ResultsMultilingual healthcare professionals understood the interpreting experience as being a gift, comprising three themes: feeling satisfaction – happiness from helping workplace colleagues; identifying with families – empathy from having been in the same situation; and expected to be available – colleagues expected them to provide interpreting services.ConclusionThis study found that it is common in neonatal care to use multilingual healthcare professionals to interpret communication with parents when language barriers exist.