The impact of postnatal depression on mother-infant face-to-face interactions at 4 months by using the Global Rating of Mother-Infant Interaction at Four Months, was examined among the normal women and women with postnatal depression and their infants. The average total score of the "mothers" and "infants" in depressed mothers and infants were decreased compared to these of health control mothers and infants. Compared with controls, depressive mother-child pairs showed a reduced score of responses (e. g. mothers showed significantly less warm/positive, accepting, responsive, non-demanding, non-intrusive behavior to their children, children showed significantly less non-fretful). Infants of the mother with postnatal depression showed less nonfretful. Similar tendency were also seen in the term of "interaction" of depressive mothers and infants (e. g. interaction is less smooth/easy and less mutually satisfying). Disturbances in early mother-infant interactions were found between the Japanese mother with postnatal depression and infant's relationship.

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A mother who come for consultation about her child gave me some ideas about mother-infant interaction. A mother's problems are often connected with those of the child. C. G. Jung said that a mother and her daughter have a common image. Some Psychoanalysts, especially, maintain that the image of the daughter which the mother has affects the mother-infant interaction. This case is that of a mother who came for consultation about her daughter' s school withdrawal. She had some sexual traumas in her infancy, so she felt anxiety and had difficulty relating to man. Her trauma went from bad to worse, because her parents didn't notice her injury. She reported many dreams about a wounded child. These images represented her injuries from her infancy. As the child in her dreams gradually healed, she gained self-confidence. At the same time, her daughter was able to return to school.

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Purpose : To examine change of self concept for 2 years after delivery and to analyze effects of birth and childcare on the self concept. Design : Longitudinal study. Three OB-GYN general hospitals in Kyoto and Osaka Prefectures were selected in order to collect data. Consent for study participation was obtained from 440 women after delivery. Methods : The participants completed questionnaires four times (24 hours, 5 day, 1 month, 1〜2 years after delivery). Completed questionnaires were returned by hands (the first two occasions) and by mail (the rest). The survey was consisted of "Self Esteem Scale" (SE) by Rosenberg, "A Scale to Measure Sex-Role Orientation" (ISRO) by Dreyer, and questions on birth and childcare factors. Results : 1) One hundred and ninety five women returned the valid answers (a recovery rate : 44.3%). The primiparas accounted for 51.3% of the sample and 48.7% of the sample were multiparas. The average of their age was 29.0±3.7 years. 2) The average scores of active SE and passive SE in primiparas were higher than those in multiparas, especially the score of active SE in primiparas was significantly higher than that in multiparas. 3) The three ISRO scores ; (1) roles of man's and woman' s labor at home, (2) conflict between childcare and carrier, and (3) labor outside home at one month after delivery were higher than those at 1〜2 years in both primiparas and multiparas. Especially, the score of labor outside home significantly increased at l〜2 years. 4) The birth factors which influenced low score SE were the groups with unsatisfactory birth (primiparas) and with heavy birth (multiparas). The birth factors which influenced high score SE were the groups with delightful childcare, husband' s participation in childcare (multiparas) and with no or seldom anxiety or trouble in childcare. 5) In the primiparas and multiparas with occupation, the scores of conflict between childcare and carrier, and labor outside home were significantly higher. They seem to have anti-traditional philosophy. In the multiparas who give breast milk, the score of conflict between childcare and carrier was significantly higher. These results indicated that SE was closely related to birth and childcare. Sex-Role Orientation was related to occupation, birth and breast milk.

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We carried out a study in an attempt to the sexual life, the level of sexual desire and satisfaction with sex, in 201 couples consisting of a pregnant wife and her husband. We found that understanding of the "reproductive" aspect of sexual was low, with less than half of the respondents recognizing this special aspect of sex. We also found that most couples thought of sexual life as a "joint" process. The items on which differences in gender were found were "pleasure," "confirmation of sex role," and "obligation and responsibility." There were few men or women who mentioned the latter two categories. The husband' s understanding of pleasure was not affected very much by his wife' s pregnancy. We assumed there was not much change. The difference in understanding between men and women was reflected at the behavioral level and at the level of satisfaction with sexual life. There were 104 (51.7%) pregnant wives and 61 (30.3%) husbands who indicated their sexual desire was satisfied just being near their partner and not engaging in sex. "I am fine as long as he/she is near me." There were 16 (8%) pregnant wives and 65 (32.3%) husbands whose level of sexual desire was "I want to have sex." The level of satisfaction with sexual life during pregnancy was significantly higher for wives. They were satisfied with their husbands' thoughtfulness and willingness to go along with their wishes. About 5% of the wives who were pregnant were not satisfied with the fact that the number of times they had sex decreased. Of the husbands, 34.3% felt some sort of dissatisfaction with their sex lives.

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A study was conducted to examine the ideal type of nursing support service for caregivers of the elderly, focusing specifically on the role of gender. The study was conducted using a questionnaire that was distributed to nursing course participants, and effective answers were obtained from 371 people. The service that respondents felt least likely to use was "special nursing home for the elderly", followed in order by "short stay" and "home help service". The gender role standard score of the person who thinks, "The family should nurse", "The woman should nurse", "Eldest son's bride should nurse", "It wants the child to nurse", "When service is used, take care with", "When service is used, eyes of the criticism of surroundings are anxious", "When service is used, the sense of sin is felt" and "The nurser cannot be helped to be sacrificed" is intentionally low. The concept of nursing within the family without using support services has intentionally increased to one with a low gender role standard score. It was clear that the sense of resistance to service use had been influenced by gender role considerations. When considering the situation of caregivers of the elderly, the importance of sanitary education for improving individual attitudes is suggested.

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It was investigated using thermography how the refined plant oil used for aromatherapy would act on the autonomous nerve, and change the skin surface temperature. Subjects were comprised of 30 healthy college students (15 each for women and men). They were seated in the room of the steady circumstances and were inhaled with vegetable refined oils (lavender, and ghetto producted in Okinawa) for 8 minutes, and then the skin surface temperature was measured successively by an infrared thermography. Moreover, the relation between the skin surface temperature and general-physical complaints, CMI, phase of menstrual cycle (week from the onset of menses), favor of these perfumes or mood change after these perfumes inhalation was examined. The skin surface temperature started to descend during the Lavender perfume inhalation in the low score group of general-physical complaints in women, while its unstable reaction that descended remarkably just after the perfume inhalation and then ascended over 3℃, was observed in the high score group. It trend to descend after the Ghetto perfume inhalation both in men and women. The skin surface temperature after the Lavender perfume inhalation was lower on the 1st week of menstruation than the other week-stages. The lower temperature had continued for 10 minutes after ceasing to inhale the perfume. The reaction of skin surface temperature by both essential oil inhalation was less in men than women.

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The aim of the present study was to investigate differences of mental impact depending on a type of benign gynecological disease or scheduled surgical procedure. Total of 293 women (169 cases with myoma uteri, 20 with prolapsus uteri, and 104 with benign ovarian cyst), who were hospitalized for receiving surgical treatment were analyzed with HADS. The HADS anxiety score was significantly higher in the benign ovarian cyst group than in the myoma uteri group. The percentage of anxious or depressed patients was also significantly higher in the former group. No significant differences were found between surgical procedures. However, some of 14 items of HADS shows significantly higher scores in patients treated by abdominal total hysterectomy than myomectomy, open surgery than laparoscopic surgery, or cystectomy than adnexectomy. These results indicate that the mental impact varies depending on type of disease and procedure. In particular, type of disease seems to have greater impact.

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