2004 Volume 10 Issue 2 Pages 81-92
This study was conducted to examine any relationships between subjective well-being (i.e., perceived psychological health and/or fatigue) in the late period of pregnancy and maternity blues symptoms following childbirth, as well as effects of obstetric factors such as complications, age, deliver history, household form, newborn infant's condition and the abnormalities at the time of a delivery. Subjects were 79 pregnant women, aged 19 to 41, who consulted Kurume University Hospital obstetric outpatients department after 36 weeks of pregnancy. The WHO Subjective Well-being Inventory (SUBI), consisting of 12 subscales, was used to assess perceived psychological health and/or fatigue. Maternity blues consisting of 4 subscales were self-rated by Stein's maternity blues scale on the 5th day following childbirth.
According to the standardized criteria for SUBI, perceived psychological health and/or fatigue were generally well among pregnant women in this sample. Maternity blues were associated with lower levels of perceived psychological health and/or fatigue during the late period of pregnancy, as well as with obstetric factors of age, complications and newborn infant status. After controlling for perceived psychological health and/or fatigue and the obstetric factors, perceived psychological fatigue remained associated with higher levels of maternity blues symptoms on the fifth day postpartum. Maternity blues symptoms were predicted by some subscales of SUBI such as physical complaints, life satisfaction, family group support social support and a feeling of achievement. These findings suggest that perceived psychological fatigue appears to be a reliable contributing factor to the differential susceptibility to maternity blues in the early postpartum period.
