Women's experiences of using a Snoezelen room during labour in Western Australia

Abstract

Objective: to explore women's experience of using a Snoezelen room during their labour.

Design: a qualitative exploratory design was conducted to provide insight into the phenomenon of using a Snoezelen room for labouring women and to identify factors that could facilitate or inhibit use of this environment. The constant comparison method modified from the grounded theory methodology was used to analyse data from in-depth interviews.

Setting: Osborne Park Hospital, the second largest public provider of obstetric services in Western Australia, was the study setting.

Participants: sixteen women, recruited from July 2005 to June 2006, agreed to participate in an in-depth interview and share their experience of using the Snoezelen room during a recent labour.

Findings: six themes were extracted from the data providing insight into what a Snoezelen environment can offer a labouring woman: distraction; relaxation; comfort; environmental control; choice of complementary therapies; and safety in a home-like atmosphere. Additional categories revealed factors that facilitated and/or detracted use of the room such as familiarity with features, being offered information and choice, timing in labour, the support person's response and working order of the room's features.

Implications for practice: when sharing their experience, women focused upon the process of their labour and how they managed this process rather than specific outcomes such as analgesic used or type of birth. Although outcomes such as type of birth may not have been their preferred choice, these women were able to achieve satisfaction with how they managed their labour while in the Snoezelen room. This midwifery-led initiative contributed to these women's labour experiences, by offering a combination of complementary therapies within the safety of a hospital environment.