'I had to Educate Myself': A thematic analysis of online stillbirth stories to improve obstetric care

Abstract

Objective: To examine which met and unmet needs are discussed in stillbirth stories shared on YouTube with the aim to improve obstetric care.

Design: Inductive thematic analysis of 19 English-language stillbirth stories uploaded to YouTube.

Setting: Online setting, YouTube video content.

Sample: Women who experienced stillbirth and shared a video on YouTube talking about their experience.

Methods: We conducted a thorough textual reading of the transcripts following Braun and Clarke's guidelines for thematic analysis.

Main outcome measures: Codes were developed and grouped into themes.

Results: Although some women actively used their birth videos to call out shortcomings in their care, most others used their platform for other purposes such as destigmatisation, awareness and support, and rather unintentionally provided insight into their met and unmet needs. When analysing their birth stories, three major themes emerged: choice and decision-making, education and information, and behaviour of healthcare providers.

Conclusions: This study demonstrates the value of birth stories in research. We identified three major opportunities for improvement of obstetric care: being provided with options and being able to make choices in the decision-making process are clearly valued, but there are some caveats: women and other childbearing individuals need timely and continuous information, and more attention is needed for emotional intelligence training of healthcare providers.

Keywords: birth stories; emotional intelligence; medical humanities; obstetric care; social media; stillbirth.