- Title
- Living with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome during pregnancy: an exploration of women’s experience
- Creator
- Levick, Kate
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2025
- Description
- Please select.. - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Description
- Background: Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) is a disorder of the autonomic nervous system that disproportionately impacts women of child-bearing age. Some guidelines address how to care for pregnant POTS patients. However, these guidelines remain underutilised and result in inconsistent care. Furthermore, the guidelines do not address the woman’s experience holistically, missing essential strategies that clinicians can easily provide to improve the pregnancy and birth experience. These inconsistencies may lead to mistrust of the medical staff and fear of birth resulting in suboptimal care during pregnancy and labour, and a traumatic experience for the woman. Aim: To explore the lived experience of women with a pre-existing diagnosis of POTS during pregnancy and birth; and to provide suggestions for clinical practice to improve care during pregnancy and birth. Methods: Ten women with POTS who had given birth within the past year participated in an in-depth semi-structured interview. Women discussed their experiences of care during pre-conception, pregnancy, labour, birth, and postpartum. Interviews were transcribed verbatim. Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis was used to identify personal and group experiential themes using the seven steps that were adapted to the needs of this study. Results: Three group experiential themes were identified: (1) women who were empowered to have choice and agency experiences made more positive meanings of their experiences, (2) how shifting attitudes changes perceptions and identities, and (3) the need for hope. Women who were medically and psychologically supported during the pregnancy journey reported greater satisfaction with the experience. Further, they experienced an easier transition into motherhood, despite experiencing serious complications and adverse events. Support came in the form of empowering the woman to make choices, giving back control as much as was medically safe, listening to concerns and actively addressing these, acknowledging and guiding the shift into motherhood and a feeling of wellbeing, and creating pathways for hope. Conclusion: Pregnancy with pre-existing POTS is complex and challenging. However, the overall experience can be positive when women are empowered to make choices, feel heard, and have hope. By employing these strategies, clinicians can work collaboratively with women with POTS to create a positive pregnancy and birth experience.
- Subject
- Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome; found poetry; pregnancy; post natal; lived experience; interpretive phenomenological analysis
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1518299
- Identifier
- uon:57269
- Rights
- Copyright 2025 Kate Levick
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT01 | Thesis | 2 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download | ||
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT02 | Abstract | 161 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |