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The aim of this dissertation is to explore the lived experience of nurses who are caring for or have cared for, women who suffer from pseudocyesis.
Pseudocyesis is, in simple terms, a false pregnancy (Oxford English Dictionary 2015). The condition is also commonly referred to as; hysterical pregnancy, phantom pregnancy and pseudo-pregnancy (Memidex 2015). It is a rare condition which affects females with both clinical and subclinical indications of pregnancy, when the woman is in fact, contrary to these given signs, not pregnant. One of the causes for this phenomenon is thought to be changes in the endocrine system of the woman’s body, which causes the secretion of hormones within the body that mimic the alterations and reactions of a woman’s body when it enters into pregnancy – these bodily changes include physical changes. This therefore can cause not only the woman herself to become convinced of having conceived and to be bearing a child but in many cases also results in medical professionals, to initially at least, misdiagnose these given signs and symptoms as being confirmation of a pregnancy – only for it to prove to be a non-pregnancy. In one report by Alvarez (2013) the symptoms of the non-pregnancy mimicked the symptoms of a real pregnancy, in a thirty seven year old woman from Brazil, so acutely that clinicians actually performed an emergency caesarean only to find that there was no baby and that the patient had in fact never been pregnant.
Now whilst the phenomenon is thought to be caused by changes in a woman’s endocrine system, this has not been categorically proven, and so the exact cause of this condition is still open to debate and investigation. As I will explore within this dissertation paper there are those who believe that, in a few cases at least, the cause of the pseudocyesis was entirely psychological and that the patient who experienced the false pregnancy did so because she almost ‘willed’ herself to be pregnant and so her body essentially reacted to her mind’s desire. Further to this, there are also those who believe that pseudocyesis can be linked with a condition known as Couvade Syndrome (more commonly known as sympathetic pregnancy). This syndrome is where, usually a male partner, will experience some of the pregnancy symptoms experienced by the pregnant partner (Dictionary 2015). However, the cause(s) for both Couvade Syndrome and pseudocyesis remain open to the debate of biological and/or psychosomatic origins.
It is therefore my intention to interview nurses about their lived experience of treating and caring for women with pseudocyesis. To do this effectively I have two main objectives in mind, firstly to understand the lived experience of the nurses who have treated women with this condition in order to further the knowledge of pseudocyesis nursing care and then secondly to explore the nurses’ level of knowledge and understanding of the condition and the women who suffer from it.
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