The Relationship of Visual and Physical Changes During Pregnancy with Body Likes and Psychological Complaints in the Postpartum Period Gebelikte Yaşanan Görsel ve Bedensel Değişikliklerin Postpartum Dönemdeki Bedeni Beğenme ve Psikolojik Yakınmalarla İlişkisi

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Fişkin G., Işik C.

E-Journal of Dokuz Eylul University Nursing Faculty, cilt.15, sa.3, ss.307-316, 2022 (Scopus, TRDizin)

Özet

Backround: Cosmetic ongoing concerns of women throughout history may increase with pregnancy. It has been reported that the visual/physical changes that occur in this process affect bodily satisfaction and may cause some psychological negative situations in the postpartum period. Objectives: It is aimed to determine the relationship between visual/physical changes experienced during pregnancy and postpartum psychological states. Methods: The universe of the study, which was planned as a descriptive and correlational, consisted of women aged 18 and over and not exceeding 42 days after birth. All puerperant women who met the criteria for inclusion in the study between 20 October 2020 and 20 January 2021 were invited online via social media (n=207). Data were collected using the puerperal information form, The body Appreciation Scale, Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale. Descriptive statistics, independent sample t-test, and one-way ANOVA tests were used in the analysis of the data, and the relationship between the variables was tested with Pearson correlation analysis. Results: It was determined that the mean age of postpartum women was 29.502 (± 4.394), 59.4% were overweight and 70.0% had planned pregnancies. Postpartum period of puerperant women who gained 14.758 (± 5.063) weight during pregnancy was found to be 21.570 (± 11.710) on average. Most of the puerperant women stated that they gained a lot of weight during pregnancy, their appetite increased, they had a posture disorder and their breasts became sensitive by growing excessively. It has been observed that postpartum women are generally satisfied with their visual/physical changes and there was a weak negative correlation with their postpartum psychology (r =-.202, p = .003). Conclusion: It was found that postpartum women who participated in the study did not show depressive symptoms, but experienced moderate anxiety and mild stress. In this respect, it is important to identify risky groups who are noticed to have visual/physical complaints from the advancing periods of pregnancy and to develop programs to prevent/treat emotional problems in the postpartum period.