Aim: To make visible the existential character of pregnancy by searching for its health dimensions as it is described in the ontological health model.
Method: Eight women were interviewed two or three times during their pregnancy and one time shortly after birth. The women have taken part in the routine programme that constitutes maternity care in Sweden. A hermeneutic approach inspired by Gadamer was used to analyse the data. An ontological health model was used to interpret the findings.
Findings: Nine themes on a rational and a contextual level were clustered to three themes on an existential level: A new life stage, The new life takes shape and Health is jeopardised. Contents of these themes were interpreted together with an ontological health model. Expecting a child means to do, be and become in expectation of the new life. Suffering and health are two different dimensions in a woman's life during pregnancy; they are integrated with one another and ever-present. It is in the meeting with the inevitable, life-changing gravidity and vulnerability that the integrative movement creates the new. Longing is the desire that provides motivation to continue.
Keywords: caring science; childbirth; experiences; hermeneutic; ontological health model.
© 2016 Nordic College of Caring Science.