Emotion During Pregnancy and Delivery as a Function of Repression-Sensitization and Number of Childbirths

Two hundred pregnant women were asked, before and after child delivery, to fill out a questionnaire about their feelings during pregnancy and childbirth. A day after delivery, they filled out the revised repression-sensitization (R-S) scale (Byrne, Barry, and Nelson, 1963). Results of the study showed four factors in the women's feelings during pregnancy and child delivery: (1) feelings of pain and anxiety during pregnancy, as well as evaluation of the pain they had suffered during delivery; (2) anxiety in the labor room; (3) fear of giving birth to a defective child: and (4) pain in the labor room. Repressors scored lower on the first three-factors than sensitizers; no significant differences were found between them in the fourth factor. Repressors also indicated that the birth pangs would influence them to postpone their next pregnancy to a lesser extent than did sensitizers. However, both indicated the same actual length of waiting time till their next pregnancy. A possible difference in time perspective between the two groups was suggested to explain this apparent inconsistency. Results also showed that primiparae scored lower on the first factor and higher on the fourth factor than did muitiparae.