Womens Changing Attitude Toward Their Body Image During Pregnancy and the Postpartum Period

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to describe women's attitudes to their body image during the postpartum period and to compare them to their attitudes to their body image prior to and during pregnancy.

A non-random, convenience sample of 63 women between the ages of 18 and 40 inclusive was investigated. Of this sample 33 were multiparas and 30 were primiparas. The research design was a repeated measures design of the postpartal woman's attitude to body image at two and six weeks postpartum. The data on prepregnant and the pregnant attitude to body image were collected retrospectively during the two week postpartum visit. The Attitude to Body Image Scale (ABIS), a modified version of Jourard's Body Cathexis Scale (Jourard & Secord, 1955), was used to identify the attitude to body image. An assessment of its validity and reliability was conducted prior to it use in the main study.

It was found that most of the subjects of this study indicated a slightly positive attitude to their body image in the postpartum period. There was no significant difference between body image attitude of the total group at two weeks and at six weeks postpartum. Primiparas felt more negative about their postpartal body image than did the multiparas (p < .03). The women in the study felt more negative about their bodies during the last three months of pregnancy than they did prior to the onset of pregnancy (p < .01), They indicated a more negative feeling about their body image in the postpartum period than they did prior to the onset of pregnancy (p < .01); and they felt more positive about their body image in the postpartum period than they did during the last three months of their pregnancy (p < .04).