Abstracto

The expectations and well-being of mother-to-be.

Linas Rovas, Ruta Baltrusaityte, Inga Drupiene

Objectives: To determine pregnant women’s emotional status and expectations with regards to childbirth.

Methods: 66 pregnant women who were treated in Siauliai Woman’s and Child Clinic because of different pregnancy pathology participated in a confidential questionnaire survey.

Results: Mothers-to-be feel intensive fear of giving birth (66.3 points on a 100-point scale of severity) moderate anxiety (53.9 points) and slight fatigue (39.6 points). Pregnant women are in need of emotional support from family members (76.2 points), experience joy of expecting a child (84.4 points) and have moderate wish to give birth (48.4 points). Pregnant women evaluated their preparation to perform active actions during labor as average (53.6 points). They would like to reduce the fear of giving birth (49.7 points), anxiety (37.2 points) and fatigue (25.3 points). Pregnant women would also like to increase self-confidence (31.4 grade) and readiness for active actions during labor (23.3 points). The results showed that during the later weeks of pregnancy women feel more ready for active actions during labor (r=0.503, p<0.001). Towards the end of a pregnancy the sense of anxiety (r=0.634, p<0.001) as well as the desire of having a baby increases (r=0.370, p<0.05). A significant difference regarding psychological well-being was observed comparing primiparous and multiparous women: primiparous women feel less tired then multiparous (p<0.05), experience greater joy of expecting a child (p<0.05), but at the same time they are more afraid of giving birth (p<0.001). Nulliparous women desire better preparation for giving birth (p<0.001) comparing to multiparous. Multiparous women would like to receive greater support from family members (p<0.001).