Husband's support behaviors toward the wife during pregnancy and interest in the fetus―Based on a comparative survey of maternity hospitals and hospitals

Abstract

Purpose

The principle aim of the present study was to clarify differences in support behaviors by the husband toward the pregnant wife and interest in the fetus during pregnancy between maternity hospital and general hospital prenatal checkups and related factors.

Methods

Of 328 husbands of a puerperants (full-term/vaginal childbirth [excluding twins], within one week after childbirth), the subjects comprised 137 husbands who responded (response rate: 42.4%). The subjects comprised 70 persons in five maternity hospitals and 67 persons in one maternity ward of a general hospital in the Kanto region. An anonymous self-administered questionnaire was distributed from July to October 2014; the contents of the questionnaire concerned the support behaviors by the husband toward the wife and interest in the fetus during pregnancy, loving relationship between the husband and wife, and desire of wife for husband to accompany her to prenatal checkups/childbirth education classes. For examination of differences, Mann-Whitney's U test, two-way analysis of variance, etc. was used, and Spearman's rank correlation coefficient was used for correlation analysis (significance level was set at 5% for all tests).

Results

The age of the subjects was 26–52 years old, (mean age: 36.2±5.3 years). Comparison of maternity hospital/general hospital prenatal checkups revealed that the birth of the second or younger child was the most common in the maternity hospital prenatal checkups and the first child was the most common in the general hospital prenatal checkups (p<.01). Therefore, we conducted a two-way analysis of variance using two factors, (i.e., maternity hospital/general hospital prenatal checkup and first child/ second or younger child), and it was shown that being the first child affected interest in the fetus (main effect: p<.001). By contrast, regarding support behaviors toward the wife, in the case of a general hospital prenatal checkup, subjects had a high possibility of carrying shopping bags and accompanying walking and massaging the wife and tended to be affected by being the first child. Thus, the results were divided by question item.

Among factors related to support behaviors by the husband toward the wife and interest in the fetus, as the score for loving relationship between husband and wife increased, support behaviors toward the wife (ρ=.197–291, p<.05) and interest in the fetus (ρ=.276–.313, p<.01) also increased.

Conclusion

Interest in the fetus was influenced by being the father of a first child without a difference between maternity hospital and the hospital prenatal checkups. However, the results regarding support behaviors toward the wife were divided according to the question item. Furthermore, factors related to support behaviors toward the wife and interest in the fetus included a loving relationship between husband and wife.