Mothers' experiences of feeding their child jejunally/via gastrostomy.
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Understanding mothers' experiences of feeding their child jejunally, or via gastrostomy.
IRAS ID
216570
Contact name
Anna David
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
The aim of this study is to understand mothers' experiences when their child requires feeding jejunally or via gastrostomy. A child may require jejunal or gastrostomy feeding when they have compromised growth, indicating oral feeding is not sufficient, possibly due to physical difficulties with swallowing or digestion. A tube inserted into the small intestine or stomach allows food to be delivered directly to these areas without being taken orally. In previous research of mothers' experiences of tube-feeding, mothers have reported that they feel they have failed as a mother when they cannot feed orally. However for some parents, jejunal or gastrostomy feeding is critical. This study will aim to learn more about the experiences of these mothers, and how their experiences relate to their identity and perception of themselves as a mother. Disruptions to maternal identity development can negatively affect maternal competence, parenting behaviour and maternal mental health. The study will involve interviewing 8-12 mothers to find out about their experiences. Potential participants will be identified by the medical team when patients are in clinics. Mothers will be provided with information about the study and will then have the chance to opt in for the researcher to contact them, or to contact the researcher in their own time if they decide they would like more information. Eligible participants will be screened by phone or email, then will be interviewed for a maximum of 2 hours at their home or Oxford Children's Hospital. Interviews will be transcribed and analysed. Each transcript will be read and re-read to identify initial key themes that arise from the data. Labels will be generated to capture the ideas within each interview, then will be clustered into themes. This will be repeated for each transcript and themes across all participants' accounts will be produced.
REC name
London - Queen Square Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/LO/0218
Date of REC Opinion
27 Jan 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion