Editors’ Note

We are pleased to publish the final issue of volume seven of Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics (NIB). The symposium includes 14 personal narratives written by women who experienced challenges with care during labor and delivery. Twelve stories appear in print and an additional two are available in the online supplement. Mary Politi and Emily Jungheim, the narrative symposium editors for the issue, along with members of the NIB editorial staff, wrote the call for stories and invited the commentators. Jason and Nicole Wasserman, Raymond De Vries, and Anne Drapkin Lyerly wrote three commentary articles on these narratives. The commentary authors have expertise and interests in obstetrics and gynecology, women’s reproductive health, bioethics, and women’s decision making about childbirth. In addition to these interests, Jason and Nicole Wasserman underwent their own challenges with the labor and delivery of their son.

The research article in this issue, entitled “Education and Reproductive Autonomy: The Case of Married Nigerian Women,” was written by Chitu Womehoma Princewill, Eva De Clercq, Anita Riecher-Rössler, Ayodele Samuel Jegede, Tenzin Wangmo, and Bernice Simone Elger. The authors analyze interviews conducted with married Nigerian women to draw conclusions about the impact of a woman’s education level on her ability to control when and how she gives birth to children.

The case study in this issue, from Marleen Eijkholt, Jane Jankowski, and Marilyn Fisher, “Screen Shots: When Patients and Families Publish Negative Health Care Narratives Online,” describes the case of a family blogging about their hospital experience. The authors use the case to discuss the tensions that form between health care providers and patients when negative reviews of care arise on the internet, and the essay offers a 6-step plan to address these tensions.

News about Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics

For a list of current Calls for Stories and Author Guidelines, please visit www.nibjournal.org. Our new website also includes a section on Education, which contains abstracts of all cases studies with discussion questions, a guide for facilitating narrative discussion groups, and a sample narrative discussion guide on the topic of stigma and bias in healthcare. We hope that these materials will assist those who facilitate learning with health care professionals and laypeople using the stories and cases published in NIB.