Abstract
It is important to improve perinatal care for women who have received assisted reproductive technology and their partners. Therefore, we report nursing care professionals' views on the psychological characteristics of pregnant and postpartum women who underwent fertility treatment and their partners, as well as a comparison with those of women who became pregnant naturally. We sent a questionnaire to 1,083 nursing care professionals (935 midwives and 148 nurses) working in advanced facilities for assisted reproductive technology by mail. The results of the survey are as follows: 1. Both pregnant/postpartum women and their partners in the fertility treatment group were in a more negative emotional state than those in the natural pregnancy group. While pregnant/postpartum women in both groups expressed a similar level of positive feelings, their partners in the treatment group showed positive emotions more strongly. 2. Pregnant/postpartum women expressed both positive and negative feelings more strongly than their partners in both (treatment and natural pregnancy) groups. 3. A larger number of midwives or those with experience of providing care for pregnant women who underwent fertility treatment, compared to nurses or those without such experience, stated that pregnant/postpartum women and their partners expressed both positive and negative feelings. In other words, nursing care professionals who interacted with a larger number of pregnant/postpartum women and their partners were better able to identify their psychological characteristics.
