3 CONTROL INTRAPARTO DE LA ACTIVIDAD UTERINA

Sociocultural dimensions in Saudi Arabia are strongly shaped by Islam, and they have marked effects on the Saudi community’s perspectives. It is hard to distinguish between cultural norms and religious perspectives because the participants’ views sometimes reflect links between these two. In fact, many Saudi cultural beliefs and norms, including those

relating to the family, respect for parents, family prestige, women’s work outside the home, a mixed-gender work environment, caring for patients of the opposite sex and marriage have a link to an Islamic interpretation in a direct or indirect way, which makes each of them important in society (El Sanabary, 1993; Meleis & Hasan, 1980; El-Sanabary, 2003; Gazzaz, 2009).

The social challenges theme was divided into two sub-themes: uunacceptable occupation and perceived lower chances of getting married.

 Unacceptable occupation

Participants acknowledged perceived social acceptability as an important factor that influences career choice. There was an agreement among the participants that people professed nursing as a socially unacceptable occupation. This is consistent with what has been raised in the literature (El Sanabary, 1993; Meleis & Hasan, 1980; El-Sanabary, 2003; Gazzaz, 2009). The participants in both focus groups indicated that families in Riyadh, especially the tribal ones, view nursing as a job that brings shame and disgrace to the family and tribe because nursing is still not acceptable, especially for women. They attributed this to resentment and disapproval of family status.

One of the parents emphasised this and explained how society’s view of his children’s occupation is important to him and how the occupation must be acceptable in society; this would make him shay indicating to that as if you did something that deviate from the acceptable social norms in your society value and believes. He stated that:

‘I would feel shy if my daughter was a nurse. What should I tell others? My daughter works as a nurse?’

Participants often reported that people perceived certain jobs in medicine, engineering and law as more prestigious and socially acceptable. A member of the parents group reported that:

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‘In our Saudi society, especially in Riyadh, for parents some jobs such as an engineer or lawyer is best and better for their children more than nurse, people respect you more if you are lawyer’.

A prestigious occupation is the first thing that students and their families would consider when looking for a job. In Saudi Arabia, a person’s job is largely indicative of his or her social identity; it is involved in and affects everything in Saudis’ lives, including social relationships and family social status. Families with a very high reputation and that have a wealthy status consider a family member’s occupation as part of the family’s identity, so the occupation must be socially accepted.

One of the students reported scary feelings when imagining being a nurse, underscoring the importance of social acceptability and how it is important for famous people in society to have a job that is acceptable and to cope up with the society believes to keep up yours and your family status. This student stated:

‘My family would kill me if I thought about nursing, my father is a very well-known person in Riyadh…. its shame they would say!’

One of the students explained that nursing is a job for a female from a family that does not care about society and how society will look at them. Those who lived in western countries are more liberal and free of cultural barriers and don’t care much of the society. The student reported:

‘Thinking of studying nursing would bring stigma to the whole family and tribe, nursing is not for triable female member, females who join nursing are only those without families or those whose fathers have lived in the Western world’.

 Perceived lower chances of getting married

Saudi Arabia is an Islamic nation run under Sharia law, and getting married is a very important life event for Muslims. Marriage is one of the most important acts of worship in Islam, and it is a social obligation for men. The participants in the discussion groups

emphasised the adverse effect of getting married while being a nurse. Interestingly, this effect was thought to impact not only female nurses, but also males. It is society’s belief that many men are reluctant to marry nurses because nurses work night shifts and are in mixed-gender places; this was contextualised strongly in the participants’ views. It is extraordinary to find a Saudi husband who permits his wife to be away from home for long hours or to sleep outside the home, even for work purposes. The participants believed that males who considered nursing as a career also had lower chances of being married because the work is in a mixed- gender place with other females, there are long hours and it is hard to spend enough time with his wife and children.

One participant in the parent’s group mentioned that:

‘I would not permit my son to get married to a nurse nor my daughter to get married to a male nurse due to the nature of nursing work, and mixing with the other gender’.

Traditions are reflected in all aspects of life, including work. Most believe that a woman’s appropriate job is being a mother, wife and taking care of the children; although, this image has been increasingly changing in Saudi society (Al-Suwaigh, 1989; Meleis & Hasan, 1980; El-Sanabary, 1993; Gazzaz, 2009). In the Saudi context, the husband is the breadwinner and the wife is a mother, and men look for women who are not working or who are working in a socially acceptable job, such as a teacher.

One of the other parents said:

‘The right place for women is home and raising children … not staying out at nights or over the weekend where the whole family are all together…working women in general and specially nurses are not the first choice when looking for a marriage, and you can see most nurses are still single. I would not like to see my daughter being like them’.

One of the students had a similar view about women’s work and that the normal place for a wife is staying home and taking care of her children and husband. This person stated that:

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‘I think a female’s normal place is her home and taking care of her family and the husband is the worker who bring money not the wife, that’s why I will not marry a worker woman’.

Being a nurse in Saudi Arabia means there is a good chance of interacting with opposite- gender colleagues or patients, which is generally prohibited. Community members who do not respect the traditions and religious roles of both men and women are thought to have a bad character. This is why some people consider female nurses, because of their talking and interacting with non-relative (MOHRAM3_{) males, as showing disrespect for society’s morals.} It is important to have a good reputation and to follow society’s traditional roles to get married (El Sanabary, 1993; Meleis & Hasan, 1980; El-Sanabary, 2003; Gazzaz, 2009) Members of the student group also emphasised this sub-theme. A member of this group stated:

‘If you want to get married earlier, don’t consider nursing as a career [Researcher: Why?] Males refuse to get married to nurses due to the hard working conditions of the nursing profession. Nurses are forced to do night shifts and mix with other genders as you know and this is enough in my opinion’.

Another one of the students stated something similar:

‘Many people avoid considering nurses when they start thinking of getting married. They think that nurses, especially females, have bad morals, due to the nature of nursing work’.