Förlossningsupplevelsen. Ett designtillägg i förlossningssalen med fokus på mental ergonomi.

Abstract

In this project I have created a design for the delivery rooms of Swedish hospitals with the psychological aspects of birthgiving in focus. This is something that I think the delivery rooms lack and so far it has been the midwifes job to, without any tools, give the women in labor the mental support and encouragement they need. My goal was to give the midwifes a tool to work with when it comes to encouragement, something helping them helping the woman to feel safe and relaxed, strengthened, informed and in control of the situation. I choose to focus on the difficulties measuring the physical work the woman in labour had done and what was left of the labour. I wanted to visualize the process of the birth, allowing the woman to see and being able to focus on where during the labour she is, how far she has left and also being strengthened by the amount of work already managed. Further I wanted to make the woman feel invited to take control over the birth and the room in which she is in labour. I wanted her to be able – if she wanted – to make her own settings of the mood in the room, deciding for herself if she wanted a more relaxed environment or perhaps a more energetic. I wanted to make the room invite the woman to take control of it, at least symbolic. By making the room more flexible/variable I wanted to give the woman in labor the feeling that the room invited her to take charge. The result is a curtain meant to hang in front of the entrance to the delivery room. The curtain can be lit up by a set of LED-lights (changeable in color) from above and warm background lighting from the side. By changing the color of the LED you change the mood in the room; you can go from a cool blue to a warm orange or just a bright white light. The lit curtain makes a soft contrast to the sterile hospital environment and hopefully gives a relaxed feel to the whole room. The curtain has a print – visualizing the birth process divided in to steps where you can follow the process going on inside the body, measuring the amount left and being strengthened by seeing how far you’ve already come.