IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v18y2021i8p4149-d536106.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Perception and Demands of Pregnant and Breastfeeding Women Regarding Their Role as Participants in Environmental Research Studies

Author

Listed:
  • Miguel Company-Morales

    (Seron Primary Care Center, Northern Almería Integrated Healthcare Area, 04600 Huercal-Overa, Almería, Spain
    Department of Nursing, Physiotherapy and Medicine, University of Almería, 04120 La Cañada, Almería, Spain)

  • Eva Zafra Aparici

    (Department of Anthropology, Philosophy and Social Work, University Rovira i Virgili, 43003 Tarragona, Tarragona, Spain)

  • Lina Casadó

    (Department of Nursing, Medical Anthropology Research Centre (MARC), University Rovira i Virgili, 43003 Tarragona, Tarragona, Spain)

  • Cristina Alarcón Montenegro

    (Antequera Hospital, Northern Málaga Integrated Healthcare Area, 29200 Antequera, Malaga, Spain)

  • Juan Pedro Arrebola

    (Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, University of Granada, 18071 Granada, Granada, Spain
    Instituto de Investigación Biosanitaria de Granada (ibs.GRANADA), 18012 Granada, Granada, Spain
    CIBER de Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), 28029 Madrid, Granada, Spain)

Abstract

A significant proportion of scientific studies consider pregnant and breastfeeding women as vulnerable subjects. The objective of this study was to analyse the perception of pregnant and breastfeeding women regarding their participation in environmental research studies. Our work is a descriptive and interpretative observational study that has been developed under the qualitative research paradigm following a phenomenological and ethnographic perspective. The study involved 173 women selected intentionally in two Spanish autonomous communities. To obtain the primary data, we relied upon 111 interviews, four focused ethnographies and eight focus groups. The data encoding and analysis was carried out with the help of NVivo 12 software (QSR International, Boston, MA, USA). We evidenced the need of pregnant and breastfeeding women for more detailed and accurate information on the risk of environmental pollutant exposure during their crucial life stage. In addition, these women claimed for a more participatory role in research studies. Pregnant and breastfeeding women in Spain ask for greater interaction with researchers and propose a dialogical relationship between valid partners. We conclude that our pregnant and breastfeeding women claim more research focused on their collective, as well as clearer, more accessible and structured information on the risks of exposure to environmental contaminants. In addition, they do not want to simply be informants; rather, they ask to be active and empowered members by providing their opinions and arguments throughout the research process.

Suggested Citation

  • Miguel Company-Morales & Eva Zafra Aparici & Lina Casadó & Cristina Alarcón Montenegro & Juan Pedro Arrebola, 2021. "Perception and Demands of Pregnant and Breastfeeding Women Regarding Their Role as Participants in Environmental Research Studies," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(8), pages 1-16, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:8:p:4149-:d:536106
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/8/4149/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/8/4149/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cristina Larrea-Killinger & Araceli Muñoz & Arantza Begueria & Jaume Mascaró-Pons, 2020. "Body Representations of Internal Pollution: The Risk Perception of the Circulation of Environmental Contaminants in Pregnant and Breastfeeding Women in Spain," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(18), pages 1-20, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Araceli Muñoz & Cristina Larrea-Killinger & Andrés Fontalba-Navas & Miguel Company-Morales, 2023. "Categorizations of Trust and Distrust in the Classifications and Social Representations of Food among Pregnant and Breastfeeding Women in Spain—Applying the Cultural Domains’ Pile Sort Technique," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(5), pages 1-18, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Araceli Muñoz & Cristina Larrea-Killinger & Andrés Fontalba-Navas & Miguel Company-Morales, 2023. "Categorizations of Trust and Distrust in the Classifications and Social Representations of Food among Pregnant and Breastfeeding Women in Spain—Applying the Cultural Domains’ Pile Sort Technique," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(5), pages 1-18, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:8:p:4149-:d:536106. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.