Indian Journal of Health and Wellbeing

Sayantani Bhattacharya ¹, Sanjukta Das ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Psychology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, IN

Abstract

Pregnancy being an important milestone in a woman's life, motherhood has long been a debated topic. Every individual posit a different view of motherhood and its importance in one's life. From the time immemorial it has been considered as an expression of female identity, and every woman aspires to become mother to be socially accepted. But what exactly drives a woman to be mother is still a curtained fact. The present article is an endeavor to search for its cause in the society and in psychological makeup of the women. Though the societal operations have important contributions in having favourable attitude towards motherhood, personal choice and psychological factors do manipulate this attitude. A small survey was also conducted to get the impression of motherhood directly from the women to get a more magnified view of their perspectives. The survey revealed the influence of the lifestyle factors that shapes the decision of child bearing of the contemporary women. In this regard, the stance of the different theorists about motherhood has also been taken into account to provide an answer to the question, why every woman wants to have baby and yearns to be called 'mother'.

Keywords

Motherhood, Psycho-Social Influence, Lifestyle Factors, Generativity.

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Sayantani Bhattacharya ¹, Sanjukta Das ²

Affiliations
1 Women's College, Kolkata, West Bangal, IN
2 Department of Psychology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, West Bengal, IN

Abstract

Pregnancy is a turning point in a women's life that is marked by innumerable metamorphoses in different spheres of life. The effects of some of these are transitory and some are permanent. Such period of crisis needs intense review to get a clearer picture of this central milestone of a woman's life. The present study was designed to assess the psychological conditions affecting the pregnancy period of primigravidae for which 46 primigravidae were reviewed on factors like anxiety, depression, happiness, different factors of personality and general well being, twice once in their first trimester and again in their third trimester of pregnancy. For the analyses of the data product moment correlation and stepwise multiple regression analyses was done with the help of SPSS package. The findings revealed happiness as the most positive factor of general well-being in both the trimester of pregnancies.

Keywords

Pregnancy, Anxiety Depression, Happiness, General Well-Being.

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