Skip to main content

Table 1 Raphael- Leff Orientations

From: The influence of women’s fear, attitudes and beliefs of childbirth on mode and experience of birth

Orientation

Description

‘The ‘Facilitator’

Sees conception as the culmination of her feminine experience. She regards women as uniquely privileged in pregnancy: ‘Russian-doll-like, each carrying the baby as she herself was carried. Thus identified with both her mother and the baby with whom she communes in introspective thought, she resolves to minimise the transition with as natural a birth as possible.’ [35] p 8.

The ‘Regulator’

‘Dreading the pain of childbirth, she plans as 'civilised' a delivery as possible, making use of medical innovations to decrease the damage.’ [35] p 9. An elevated incidence of elective caesareans was seen amongst the women she identified with this orientation. She interpreted this as an indication of a preference for predictability and a way of bypassing the potentially humiliating experience of vaginal birth. [35].

The ‘Reciprocator’

Sees birth as both stressful and exciting. These women tend to take on a ‘wait-and-see’ attitude.

‘Conflicted’

These women shift between the extreme ‘Facilitator’ and ‘Regulator’ orientations. It is difficult for these women to manage both the contradicting feelings of ‘Facilitator’ and ‘Regulator’ and the uncertainty of the outcome [35].