Perinatal experiences of Somali couples in the United States.

Objective: To explore the perspectives of Somali couples on care and support received during the perinatal period in the United States.

Design: Descriptive phenomenology.

Setting: A private room at the participants' homes or community center.

Participants: Forty-eight immigrant women and men from Somalia (26 women and 22 men) who arrived in the United States within the past 5 years and had a child or children born in their homelands or refugee camps and at least one child born in the United States. All of the participants resided in the Pacific Northwest.

Methods: Semistructured individual interviews, interviews with couples, and a follow-up phone interview. Colaizzi's method guided the research process.

Results: Data analysis revealed an overarching theme of Navigating through the conflicting values, beliefs, understandings and expectations that infiltrated the experiences captured by the three subthemes: (a) Feeling vulnerable, uninformed, and misunderstood, (b) Longing for unconditional respect and acceptance and (c) Surviving and thriving as the recipients of health care.

Conclusions: Integration of new Somali immigrant couples into the Western health care system can present many challenges. The perinatal experience for new Somali immigrant couples is complicated by cultural and language barriers, limited access to resources, and commonly, an exclusion of husbands from prenatal education and care. Nurses and other health care providers can play an important role in the provision of services that integrate Somali women and men into the plan of care and consider their culture-based expectations to improve childbirth outcomes.