The experience of pregnancy: a hermeneutical/phenomenological study.

The aim of this study was to describe women's experience of pregnancy. The setting was the Alternative Birth Center at Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Göteborg, Sweden, from 1996 to 1997. Anonymous diaries were written by 12 women and analyzed using a hermeneutical/phenomenological approach. The essential structure and interpretation of women's experience of pregnancy can be expressed as "transition to the unknown," which includes three themes: (1) meeting one's life situation, (2) meeting something inevitable, and (3) preparing for the unknown.The essential structure and interpretation of women's experience of pregnancy can be expressed as "transition to the unknown" …