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Qualitative Health Research, Vol. 17, No. 3, 288-299 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/1049732306298348

Newborns With an Impairment: Discourses of Hospital Staff

Tanja M. Vehkakoski

University of Jyväskylä, Finland

The birth of a baby with an impairment goes against dominant cultural ideals about a happy event. Therefore, the interaction between professionals and parents is particularly important, from the hospital maternity ward to the home. In this article, the author examines both the representations of neonatal impairments constructed by professionals and the consequent subject positions for these babies with impairments. The study is based on interview data collected among 19 staff members of one Finnish county hospital. The author analyzed the data by means of qualitative discourse analysis and concludes that it would be important for health care professionals to provide many-sided elements for parents to consider in the construction of the image of their baby other than traditional tragically and negatively biased cultural interpretations.

Key Words: newborn baby • disability • professional • discourse analysis


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