Home About Us Contact Us

Official Journals By StatPerson Publication

Table of Content Volume 10 Issue 1 - April 2019


 

Expectations among pregnant mothers

 

Thongam Victory Khanganbi*, Priya M**

 

1Research Scholar, Assistant Professor, Department of Human Development, Avinashilingam, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, INDIA.

2Institute for Home Science and Higher Education for Women, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, INDIA.

 

Abstract               Pregnancy is known as gestation, is the time during which one or more offspring develops inside a women womb. Pregnancy is typically divided into three trimesters. The first trimester is one week through 12 week and includes conception, the 2nd trimester start from 13 week to 28 week. The third trimester is from 29 week through 40weeks.During pregnancy most of the women may have higher expectations relating to their own health, growing foetus health, services in family and hospitals, relationship issues, type of delivery, food, gender of the baby and many more.  As previous studies were not much focussed in this area, thus current study aimed to explore and understand the expectations among pregnant mothers from Coimbatore city to help them to have safe, satisfied pregnancy time and to avoid dissatisfaction, depression during pregnancy. The overall goal of the study is to help pregnant mothers to express their needs/expectations in order to enhance their optimum health and wellbeing of their unborn infants. A self-constructed questionnaire was developed to assess the level of expectations among pregnant mothers and the collected data from pregnant mothers by obtaining consent from their family. The sampling method used was purposive sampling. A total of 60 pregnant mothers were participated in this study. Results revealed that mothers of 26-32 years predicted higher expectations followed by 33-40 years but do not find any significant difference. Pregnant mothers who are living in urban area have higher expectations than rural and slum. This study proves that mothers who residing in urban area have more expectations and this could be further explored based on other variables.

Key Word: pregnant mothers, expectations, trimester.

 

 

INTRODUCTION

Pregnancy is the carrying of offspring into the mother womb for nine months. In every menstrual cycle, once in 28 days ovum is produced in the female ovary and come down through a fallopian tube to the uterus. After the 14 days of menses, ovaries release one ovum. In that time, female is conceived when the ejaculation of male sperm into the female vagina. While the meeting of the female egg cells the sperm penetrate to the egg cell and form zygotes. In pregnancy, they divided into three trimesters, i.e., first trimester, second trimester and third trimester. Although they may not look pregnant during the first trimester, the body is going through enormous changes as it accommodates a growing baby. In the first few weeks following conception, the hormone levels change significantly. The uterus begins to support the growth of the placenta and the fetus, the body adds to its blood supply for carrying out oxygen and nutrients to the developing baby, and pregnant mother heart rate increases. These changes accompany many pregnancy symptoms, such as fatigue, morning sickness, headaches, and constipation, etc. During this time due to hormonal changes and other family issues expectant mothers emotional status may vary. Many women desire to have many wishes and expectations at this time. In the first trimester most of the mothers think about childbirth, breastfeeding, and parenting classes, and type of hospital for checkup etc. The first trimester is very important for the development of the baby. It is essential to take folic acid supplements before the pregnancy begins. The fetus will develop a majority of an organ by the end of the third month, so this is a crucial time. It is crucial to maintain a healthy and normal diet, including an adequate amount of folic acid and other vital nutrients in order to help prevent neural tube defects. The pregnant mother should strictly avoid consuming alcohol and smoking. These bad habits, and any drug use (including some prescription drugs) have been linked to serious pregnancy complications and leads to birth defects. In the first trimester, it is good to think about pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, and parenting classes. During the first trimester, the risk of miscarriage is significant if the women are taking prenatal vitamins and avoiding harmful substances, then the women already doing for a baby a huge service and lowering the risk of miscarriage. In the second trimester (weeks 13-27), it is the most comfortable and enjoyable period of time for pregnant mothers. Most of the early pregnancy symptoms may gradually disappear.  The women abdomen will start to look like pregnant, as the uterus will grow rapidly in size. It's a good time to have new maternity wear and avoid restrictive clothing. While the discomforts of early pregnancy may ease off, there are a few new symptoms to get used to. Common complaints include leg cramps and heartburn.  Pregnant women might find growing more of an appetite, and weight gain will usually accelerate. Pregnant mothers should work on gaining the amount of weight recommended but not putting on extra weight; she has to focus on it. The second trimester is when most women can feel their baby move for the first time, usually by 20 weeks. The baby can even hear and recognize the voice during the second trimester. In the third trimester, which includes weeks 28 to 40 of a week. In the third trimester both physically and emotional changes could be observed among pregnant woman. The baby is then considered full term at the end of week37, and it is only a matter of time before the baby will be born. Researching and understanding what to expect during the third trimester can help mothers to reduce any anxiety of pregnant mother may have during the final stages of the pregnancy. The third trimester is a good time to educate pregnant mothers about labor and delivery. This takes time out to enroll in a childbirth class. Childbirth classes are designed to prepare the mother and partner for labor and delivery.  In society, pregnancy and motherhood are often represented in special ways since the expectations; desires during that stage are different from the others. Adjusting to the new life with new experiences along with myths and reality are enormously challenging. The relationship between pregnant women's psychological well beings and fetal well beings is receiving more and more attention. During pregnancy, expecting mothers are emotionally and physically weak. Their mind is occupied with several worries and questions about the baby's future, health and the relation with the baby. Expecting wife want her husband too take her out, go for baby shopping together, spend quality time, take care of a healthy diet, bond with the family, etc.  Many factors can influence pregnant mother’s expectations which may find out the current and future conflicts and disappointments. Expectations mother want more pamper from her husband

Keeping on this in view present study formulated following objectives

 

OBJECTIVES

To explore and understand the expectations of pregnant mother

To assess influence of age and living area on expectations among pregnant mothers

Hypotheses

There is no significant difference observed among expectations of pregnant mothers

There is no significant difference observed among expectations of pregnant mothers based on age.

There is no significant difference observed among expectations of pregnant mothers based on living area.

 

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The samples for the present study were collected from Coimbatore city by purposive sampling was used for the selection of population. A total of 60 pregnant mothers were selected for the conduct of the study after getting consent from respondent and as well as from family. A self-constructed tool on Expectations among Pregnant Mothers was used to understand the selected respondent expectations during pregnancy. This tool consists of 38 statements with 9 areas, namely partners support, parental support, in-law-support, finance, health, foods cravings, prenatal counseling, gender preferences, type of delivery. Among 38 statements 14 are negative and the remaining 24 are positive. This tool was constructed based on 3 point scale and positive statements is awarded as 3, 2, 1 and negative as 1,2,3,. The maximum score will be 114 and minimum will be 38. Higher the score higher expectations lower the score lower the expectations. The collected information’s were analyzed and appropriate statistical applications were applied to explore the results.

 

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Table 1: The level of Expectations among pregnant mothers based on age

Sl.

No.

Age

High

Low

No.

%

No.

%

1

18-25(18)

16

88.89

2

11.11

2

26-32(24)

22

91.66

2

8.34

3

33-40(18)

17

94.44

1

5.56

Table-1 depicts the level of expectations among pregnant mothers based on age.  From this table we could observe thatmajority of pregnant mothers under the age group 26-32 are having higher expectations (91.66%) followed by 33-40 years (94.44%). The mothers under the age group 18-25 (88.89%) during the pregnancy. This result stated that mothers who are under 26-32 years have more expectations than other counter parts.

 

1

Figure 1: Expectations among pregnant mothers


Fig-1 describes Expectations among Pregnant Mothers. From the above figure it can be seen that majority of pregnant mothers are expecting high level of expectation during pregnancy (91.67%) and the remaining 8.33% are expecting low level of expectations during pregnancy.

 

Table 2: Mean, SD and F-Value of expectations among pregnant mothers based on age

Sl. No.

Age

Mean

SD

F-Value

1

18-25(18)

77.00

7.50

2.013

Ns

p= .143

2

26-32(24)

80.70

6.61

3

33-40(18)

80.61

5.06

NS=not significant

Table-2 shows mean, SD and F-value of expectations among pregnant mothers based on age. From this table it is observed that, majority of pregnant mothers from the age group 26-32 years are experiencing higher expectations and the obtained mean and SD values are 80.70 and 6.61. With respect to age group 33-40 years, the observed mean and SD values are 80.61 and 5.06 respectively. In case of 18-25 years age group mothers, it was 77.0 and 7.50 respectively. The calculated F-value for this was 2.013 and p value0.143 which is not significant. Comparatively, 26-32 years age group mothers predicted higher expectations during pregnancy with no significant difference in age group. Thus hypothesis is accepted.

Table 3: The level of Expectations among pregnant mothers based on living area

Sl.

No.

Living area

High

Low

No.

%

No.

%

1

Rural (14)

14

100

0

0

2

Urban (35)

30

85.72

5

14.28

3

Slum (11)

10

90.0

1

10.0

Table-3 depicts the level of expectations among pregnant mothers based on living area. From this table we could observe that, all pregnant mothers (100%) from rural area having higher expectations during pregnancy. In case of urban area, majority i.e. 85.72% are having higher expectations and the rest 14.28 are having low. With respect of slum area (90.0%) majority showed high expectations during pregnancy and the rest10.0% experienced low expectations.

 

Table 4: Mean, SD, and F-values of expectations among pregnant mothers based on living area

Sl.

 

Living area

Mean

SD

F- Value

1

Rural (14)

76.50

6.61

3.150

p=.05*

2

Urban (35)

81.25

6.40

3

Slum(11)

78.03

5.88

significant at .05% level

Table- 4shows mean, SD and t-values of expectations among pregnant mothers based on living area. The mean and SD value of pregnant mothers who are living in rural area were 76.50 and 6.61 respectively. In case of urban area, the obtained mean and SD value are 81.25 and 6.40 respectively. With respect to slum area, the obtained mean and SD value are 78.03 and 5.88.The calculated F-value was 3.150 and p- value .05 which it is significant at .05% level. This result predicted that pregnant mothers who are living in urban area showing higher mean value and thus having higher expectations than other counter parts. Thus hypothesis 3 could be rejected. In one of the studies by Haoyue Gao(2013) found that urban pregnant women had more desirable intakes in all nutrients (except for fat) than rural women but still had low intakes of certain micronutrients. A more balanced and nutritious diet for pregnant women in the Deyang region could be achieved by serving non-fried rather than fried dishes, the partial substitution of lean meats for high-fat meats, increased consumption of seafood, more regular consumption of animal organs (in particular, liver), sufficient consumption of eggs, a more privileged position of tofu, whole grains, colorful fruits and vegetables, and low-fat dairy products in the daily diet. However, we do not find any related kinds of literature in overall expectations among pregnant mothers concerning living area.

 

CONCLUSION

The present study focused to determines the “Expectations among Pregnant Mothers” from the Coimbatore city with the sample of 60 participation through purposive method. A self-constructed questionnaire on ‘Expectations among Pregnant Mothers’ was used which consists of 38 statements with 9 areas. The results predicted that there were some commonalities among expectations of pregnant mothers, however majority experiencing higher expectations, but it varies with age and living area. With that, area of residence showed significant difference and proved that pregnant mothers who residing in urban area proved that higher expectations during pregnancy than other counter parts. This study explore pregnant mothers may desire variety of expectations that require more attention and care from family members to maintain pregnant mothers emotional well-beings. Good relationship with partners, in-laws, better financial status, healthy and sufficient food, prenatal counseling will have an impact on mothers health. Thu fulfilling all these expectations move a women to have satisfactions and healthy child birth.

 

REFERENCES

  1. B. F. Joeli and M. Marsa (2010). Expectations of Pregnant Women and Partner Concerns their Participation in humanized birth, Revisits Latino- Americas-de Enfermagem, vol.18.
  2. C. Hippman and L. G. Balneaves(2018), Women’s Decision Making About Antidepressant use During Pregnancy, a narrative review, PubMed, PMID:30099817
  3. Kristen S. Montagamy, G. Traie, M. Barbara, T.Kimbery, OB. Corrinna, M. Jeri, M. C. Troy, S. Loretla, B. Sonya and F.H. Elizabeth (2016). Women Desire for Pregnancy. The Journal of Perinatal Education, vol.19, PMC2920652.
  4. Tracy Stickler and Kathryn Watson (2017). Trimesters and due date, Healthline news letter, New York
  5. W.Neuhavs and S.S.Charles (1994), fear-pregnant women before labor, PubMed, PMID: 8165832.