Recently, there have been growing concerns and attention in addressing health disparities across LGBTQ people, with studies providing and highlighting the areas that require further development and attention. One of the areas characterized by disparities is the maternity care area, as LGBTQ people also become parents and hence require maternity services. Throughout the child-bearing process, some LGBTQ people face significant discrimination exposing them to trauma. Grundströma et al. (2023) address and explore the prevalence of previous trauma exposure across pregnant women and their spouses within the LBTQ. They also compare the fear of bearing children and life quality. As such, Grundströma et al. (2023) play significant roles in enhancing and understanding the potential impact of trauma on the mental well-being and childbirth experiences of LBTQ-identifying prospective parents.
Traumas are emotional responses to terrible events that have occurred in one’s life, and recognizing and understanding the traumas experienced by LGBTQ individuals during pregnancy and childbirth is essential for creating an inclusive and non-discriminatory healthcare environment. The authors precede that exposing individuals to traumatic events can develop diverse mental disorders, including depression, post-traumatic illnesses, and acute stress illnesses. As a result, drug addiction rates of depression, anxiety syndrome, and phobia are higher across bisexual cisgender and lesbians who report higher traumatic experiences than the cisgender heterosexual group. Contemporary transgender people also report more traumatic life experiences than lesbians and transgender people, resulting in high rates of suicides and depression. By addressing the issue of traumatic life experiences across LGBTQ people, Grundströma et al. (2023) depict how these experiences impact a person’s quality of life (QoL).
Quality of life (QoL) is a multidimensional term that includes diverse elements of people’s lives, like role functioning, emotional well-being, and psychological and physical health. Concerning the disparities across the healthcare sector, Potter and Patterson (2019) inform that LGBTQ people report lower Quality of life than people from the heterosexual cisgender. There are discrepancies in QoL across LGBTQ people, as bisexual and cisgender and lesbians are associated with lower QoL that affect their activity levels than the heterosexual cisgender. The possible driver of this lower QoL across gender minorities is associated with minority stress, which is prevalent when one belongs to a marginalized and stigmatized group. Additionally, transgender people’s low Quality of life is often associated with negative healthcare experiences, and they cannot change their legal gender.
The child-bearing process, particularly during pregnancy, is filled with various emotions and feelings that develop the fear of childbirth (FOC) among pregnant people and their spouses. While the fear of birth can be severe, mild, or phobic, LGBTQ people demonstrate severe FOC, a condition characterized by fear capable of impairing people’s daily well-being and functioning. Minority stress associated with discrimination and marginalization across the healthcare services and poor treatment by healthcare professionals is the leading cause of fear of childbirth among LGBTQ people (Malmquist et al., 2019). Additionally, the social norms to be conformed with regarding femininity and maternity throughout the pregnancy accelerate the fear of birth among LGBTQ people who may not conform to the preset norms.
From the methods, results, and discussion utilized by the article, the authors address the issue and bridge the existing research gap. The data for this study was from LGBTQ- antenatal clinic based in Sweden, and participants included pregnant women, both non-traumas exposed and those already exposed to trauma. Also, the method utilized EuroQol 5D-index/visual analog scale and non-parametric tests to evaluate diversity between groups and explore the relationship between severe FOC and medical and population factors of the studied population. The research findings indicate similar proportions of trauma exposures among pregnant LGBTQ women and their spouses, with 40.0% and 41.2% reporting previous trauma, respectively. Pregnant respondents with trauma experiences had a significantly higher prevalence of severe fear of childbirth than those without such trauma.
The study’s findings contribute valuable insights into the relationship between trauma exposure, FOC, and life quality among LBTQ-identifying prospective parents. The study’s focus on the LGBTQ community is particularly noteworthy, as this group is often underrepresented in research related to pregnancy and childbirth. However, while this study provides crucial insights, it has limitations; the relatively limited sample size can limit the results’ generalizability to a broader population, and the study’s cross-sectional design does not allow for the establishment of causality between trauma exposure and fear of childbirth or quality of life. Future research with larger, longitudinal samples could address these limitations and offer more robust conclusions.
In a nutshell, Grundströma et al. (2023) present an exemplary work highlighting the potential adverse impacts of previous trauma exposure in shaping the FOC and life quality experiences among LBTQ-identifying expectant parents. The findings underscore the importance of acknowledging and addressing trauma-related concerns during antenatal to provide adequate support and care to this population. Health professionals and practitioners can benefit from these findings by tailoring their approaches to meet the specific needs and challenges faced by LGBTQ individuals and their partners during pregnancy and childbirth.
References
Grundström, H., Malmquist, A., Karlsson, A., & Nieminen, K. (2023). Previous trauma exposure and its associations with fear of childbirth and quality of life among pregnant lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer people and their partners. LGBTQ+ Family: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 19(2), 175–185. https://doi.org/10.1080/27703371.2023.2167760
Malmquist, A., Jonsson, L., Wikström, J., & Nieminen, K. (2019). Minority stress increases the fear of childbirth in Lesbian and bisexual women and transgender people. Midwifery, 79, 102551. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.midw.2019.102551
Potter, E. C., & Patterson, C. J. (2019). Health-related quality of life among lesbian, gay, and bisexual adults: The burden of health disparities in 2016 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Data. LGBT Health, 6(7), 357–369. https://doi.org/10.1089/lgbt.2019.0013
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