Featured Scholar: Jennifer Bute, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Communication Studies, IU Indianapolis School of Liberal Arts
Research Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OH8f6_uWspM
COVID-19 Birth Stories
In this year-long project, Professor Bute and her research partner, Professor Maria Brann, first conducted focus groups with women across the country who had given birth during a time when their state or local governments had issued stay-at-home orders because of the COVID pandemic. Then, they followed up a year later by interviewing the same women individually to learn more about raising a newborn during a pandemic.
The researchers found that the isolation of stay-at-home orders and changes in health care policies, such as limitations on hospital visitors and in-person appointments, had a profound effect on women. Women discussed in detail the mental health challenges they faced, such as postpartum depression and anxiety, that they felt were heightened because of the pandemic. Women also discussed the challenges of navigating who had access to visit or hold their newborn, which involved keeping their babies safe while contending with family expectations about seeing the baby. The women who participated in the study were grateful for the opportunity to connect with other women with similar experiences to know that they are not alone. They provided recommendations for helping pregnant women and new moms who are navigating motherhood in an unprecedented time, and even spoke to the media about this project so that other women would feel supported.
Professor Bute's translation of research into supportive groups for new mothers is another excellent example of how IU Indianapolis's faculty members are TRANSLATING their RESEARCH INTO PRACTICE.
Selected Publications in IU Indianapolis ScholarWorks
Bute, J. J., Brann, M., Scott, S. F., & Johnson, N. L. (2024). Expectancy violations and boundary management when giving birth during a pandemic: Implications for supporting women. Journal of Communication in Healthcare, 17(1), 92–100. https://hdl.handle.net/1805/45857
Bute, J. J., Brann, M., Buskmiller, C., & Fredenburg, M. (2023). “There’s no time limit on grief:” Women’s perspectives on a novel reproductive grief screening tool. PEC Innovation, 3, 100244. https://hdl.handle.net/1805/40652
Bute, J. J., Bowers, C., & Park, D. (2022). Parents’ Communication Work in the Management of Food Allergies. Health Communication, 37(8), 972–981. https://hdl.handle.net/1805/25185
Bute, J. J., & Martins, N. (2022). The association of news media with anxiety in food allergic children and their parents. Pediatric Allergy and Immunology, 33(1), e13660. https://hdl.handle.net/1805/38297
Scott, S. F., Johnson, N. L., Brann, M., & Bute, J. J. (2022). ‘Had I gone into the office, they would have caught it a little bit sooner’: Narrative problematics in U.S. pandemic birth stories. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 50(6), 711–729. https://hdl.handle.net/1805/36953
Bute, J. J. (2021). Public and Private Revisited: Storied Reflections from a Food Allergy Parent. Health Communication, 36(8), 1053–1054. https://hdl.handle.net/1805/25181
Brann, M., Bute, J. J., & Scott, S. F. (2020). Qualitative Assessment of Bad News Delivery Practices during Miscarriage Diagnosis. Qualitative Health Research, 30(2), 258–267. https://hdl.handle.net/1805/25183
Bute, J. J., & Brann, M. (2020). Tensions and Contradictions in Interns’ Communication about Unexpected Pregnancy Loss. Health Communication, 35(5), 529–537. https://hdl.handle.net/1805/21318
Bute, J. J., Brann, M., & Hernandez, R. (2019). Exploring societal-level privacy rules for talking about miscarriage. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 36(2), 379–399. https://hdl.handle.net/1805/18074
Bute, J. J., Broome, S. B., Marcus, J. N., Mikulcik, S., & Vickery, B. (2018). Development of a patient-centric food allergy research program: A model for action. Allergy, 73(7), 1551–1553. https://hdl.handle.net/1805/25186
Find more free articles by Jennifer Bute in IU Indianapolis ScholarWorks.