Abstract
We studied how pregnant women and their husbands feel toward their pregnancies and unborn children. This research aims to contribute to the basic research of not only mental health during pregnancy but also the baby's future care, security, and possible abandonment and abuse. The methodology used was surveys conducted through questionnaires filled in by those surveyed. The survey was performed for 429 pregnant women and 230 husbands. The questionnaire asked: (1) Age, primigravide or multigravida, weeks into pregnancy, (2) Degree of joy and feelings of the pregnancy, (3) Whether the woman feels that the father of the baby is pleased with her pregnancy or not; and whether the father feels that the woman is pleased with her pregnancy or not, (4) The parents' thoughts towards the pregnancy, the baby and child care after delivery. We found differences in the degree of joy and feelings towards the pregnancy between the pregnant women and their husbands. When the pregnant women genuinely wanted to have the baby and felt that her husband was delighted with her pregnancy, she had a great feeling of joy, happiness and anticipation towards the unborn child. On the contrary, our study found that the father's feelings towards the baby were unaffected by the degree of happiness the pregnant woman felt. The father's feelings of his wife's pregnancy greatly influenced whether the woman could happily accept and love her baby. From this study we propose three psychological high risk factors during pregnancy: (1) for some reason, the pregnancy is not welcomed, (2) neither the pregnant woman nor her husband is pleased with the pregnancy, (3) the pregnant mother feels no joy while carrying the baby nor does she look forward to child care after delivery.
