Adaptation and decision making under uncertainty : contributions from psychology and perinatal medicine ; Décisions et ajustement face à l'incertitude : Apports croisés entre psychologie et médecine périnatale

In the field of perinatal care, the way in which parents and healthcare providers react to uncertainty impacts their experiences and perception of the choices they are faced with. The aim of this thesis is twofold: 1) to gain a better understanding of the impact of responses to uncertainty on parents' and healthcare professionals' experiences and decisions, and 2) to examine the epistemological foundations underpinning interdisciplinary research work involving medicine and psychology. The thesis is centred upon three scientific studies; the first employs an interpretative phenomenological approach to explore how parents who have lived through a palliative care decision for their newborn construct meaning around their experience. The second uses Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) to examine the mediating role of intolerance of uncertainty in the relationship between parental perfectionism and postnatal depression in mothers during the first year postpartum. The third uses clinical vignette methodology to explore the hypothesis that, in neonatology, the stress experienced by healthcare providers when faced with uncertainty influences their perception of the reasonableness of initiating or pursuing resuscitative management in a fictitious case of prematurity at the edge of viability. All three studies address the topic of adapting to uncertainty in the perinatal period through different methodological approaches. They show that the way in which parents and healthcare providers respond to uncertainty shapes their experiences and decisions. Recommendations for improving clinical practice, professional training and family support are presented. Proposals for fostering interdisciplinary collaboration between psychology and perinatal medicine are also discussed, namely through a better understanding of the epistemological foundations of each discipline. ; Dans le champ de la périnatalité, la façon dont parents et soignants réagissent à l'incertitude a un fort impact sur leur vécu et leur ...