Referral practices within healthcare systems are seen as a means of heightening the quality of perinatal care and lessening perinatal mortality and morbidity. Perinatal death or the birth of child with a handicap can be debilitating for a family. Since January 2002 a new referral system has been instituted within Greenland sending all at risk pregnancy to the referral hospital in Nuuk. The aim of the study was to describe the women’s experience of referral by drawing on their experiences and using their voices to present referral from the women’s point of view. Interviews were conducted within arrival at the referral hospital and during fieldwork over a one-year period. Interviews were conducted, recorded and transcribed. The analysis of interview data was conducted within the narrative framework, using Coping theory and resiliency tools as the theoretical base for structuring the narratives. Through their narratives the women presented their identities as mothers, community members and caretakers. Acceptance of referral was described as a tool for protecting their unborn child. With acceptance of the referral the women found an inner source of strength to deal with their own anger joy anxiety and loneliness. Their ability to accept referral was directly connected to their family and community and the support that they found therein

Siden januar 2002 har Grønland instrumenteret nye perinatale retningslinier. Disse retningslinier har til hensigt til at nedbringe mortaliteten og morbiditeten hos de nyfødte og deres mødre. Projektet tager udgangspunkt i kvindernes oplevelse af visitationen. Det belyser de udfordringer som kvinderne præsenteres for samt de redskaber kvinderne er i besiddelse af, i forsøget på at besejre disse udfordringer. Kvinderne blev interviewet ved ankomsten til modtagelsessygehuset og under feltarbejde. Interviewene blev optaget på bånd og blev transskriberet løbende. Narrrative teorier er grundlag for analysen af interviewene og coping og resiliency faktorer er de teoretiske grundprincipper for præsentation af kvindernes tanker. Igennem narrativerne fremlagde kvinderne deres oplevelse af sig selv som mødre, som medborgere og omsorgspersoner. Det at acceptere visitationen beskrives som et redskab til at beskytte deres ufødte barn. Ved at acceptere visitationen oplevede kvinderne en indre styrke, som hjalp dem til at bearbejde følelser som vrede, glæde, bekymring og ensomhed. Støtte fra deres familier og deres lokalsamfund var afgørende for deres oplevelse af tiden på modtagelsessygehuset