Pregnancy: Physical and Psychological Changes in Women

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ABSTRACT

In a woman's life becoming a mother is one of the most exciting times. This privilege of becoming a mother is not given that effortlessly. A woman has to go athwart many changes to give birth to a child. A pregnant woman is presumed to be susceptible host to changes and disturbances such as psychological changes, physical changes. This paper attempts to determine the physical and psychological changes that women undergo during pregnancy.

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Background of the Research

In a woman's life the period of pregnancy is one of the important phases of life in which well being and health have important implication not only for the unborn child but also for the woman herself. Rapid changes in the woman body shape and size are found to occur in a relatively short period of time during pregnancy (Duncombe, Wertheim, Skouteris, Paxton and Kelly, 2008). Several other changes are expected to result which the woman might experience during the typical pregnancy period. The main implication of these changes is the extent to which the woman may adapt to the changes and associated concerned such as depression, low self-esteem and anxiety (Rofe, Blittner and Lewin, 1993). Pregnancy in a women life is combination of psychological, physical, physiological and social change (Martin and Redshaw, 2010). Therefore, it is of much importance to determine what the woman experience both psychological and physical changes. These changes in a women life are found to be normal and are expected to come one way or the other.

Problem Statement

In this dissertation the basic purpose of the research study is to determine the physical and psychological changes that a woman experience during their pregnancy. Pregnancy is a very important phase in a woman's life (Chamberlain, 1991). However, the experiences the woman that undergo during ...