Listening to Cuban Mothers

The most common reason for women of childbearing age to access healthcare in the 21st Century is for assistance with childbirth. Cultural diversity is now increasingly common in the U.S. and the group of people with Hispanic heritage is growing most rapidly. Nursing research to describe the experience of childbirth among minority women has been limited. Cubans are the second largest group of Hispanic people in the U.S. and may have cultural beliefs that influence health that have not been uncovered. The purpose of the study was to examine and describe the lived experience of childbirth among a group of Cuban women. Descriptive phenomenological methods were utilized to interview 29 Cuban women who had recently given birth. Two open-ended research questions guided the study: What is the experience of childbirth among 21st Century Cuban women in a Florida hospital? What is the influence of Cuban beliefs and culture on the experience of childbirth among Cuban women in a Southwest Florida hospital? The findings reflected three main clusters of themes.