Objective: The aim of this study was to explore the essential structure of the lived experience of childbearing, as seen from the perspective of women who have given birth.
Design, setting, and participants: The phenomenological perspective of qualitative research theory guided the methodological approach to the study, in which interactive interviews were conducted with a purposeful sample of fourteen mothers of healthy babies in Akureyri and Reykjavik, the two most inhabited places in Iceland.
Findings: The metaphor of a woman journeying through labour and delivery was chosen to symbolize the lived experience of giving birth to a healthy baby. This encompasses four major categories: influences of circumstances and expectations before the journey's commencement; a sense of self during the journey which encompasses a sense of being in a private world, the sense of control, the need for caring and understanding and the need for a sense of security; the journey through labour and delivery itself; and finally the first sensitive hours of motherhood and the perception of the uniqueness of birth as a life experience at the journey's end. The study has the potential of increasing the knowledge and understanding of giving birth as a life experience, and therefore, has implications for midwives and nurses, as well as for women and their supporters.
Key conclusions: The lived experience of giving birth is a powerful life experience which is coloured by circumstances and expectations of the woman, her sense of self during the journey, the journey itself, as well as the first sensitive hours of motherhood.
Implications for practice: The study has the potential of increasing the knowledge and understanding of giving birth as a life experience, and therefore, has implications for midwives/nurse, as well as for women and their supporters.