Women's Bio-Psycho-Social Features Among Places of Residence During the Postpartum Ritual Period

Wednesday, 1 August 2012: 10:30 AM

Chich-Hsiu Hung, PhD, RN
School of Nursing, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan

Learning Objective 1: The learner will be able to compare women’s postpartum stress, social support, and health status at different places of residence during their postpartum ritual periods.

Learning Objective 2: The learner will be able to examine the function of the postpartum nursing centers and their effectiveness after a short maternity hospital stay.

Purpose:

The traditional Chinese ritual of Tso-Yueh-Tzu is a culturally sanctioned time for a woman in the first month after childbirth to rest and recuperate at home. However, there is a dearth of studies exploring the level of women’s postpartum stress, social support, and health status based on the places of residence during the postpartum ritual period. Therefore the purpose of this study was to examine women’s postpartum stress, social support, and health status at different places of residence during their postpartum ritual periods.

Methods:

Proportional stratified quota sampling based on birth rate from eighteen general hospitals and specialty clinics in the Kaohsiung metropolitan area of southern Taiwan was used to obtain a high degree of representation. A total of 784 women participated in this study, including 134 (17.1%) women stayed in their own home (without both parents-in-law and parents lived together), 261 (33.3%) in their parents-in-law associated home, 282 (36.0%) in their parents associated home, and 107 (13.6%) in the postpartum nursing center. Three instruments—the 62-item Hung Postpartum Stress Scale, the 10-item Social Support Scale, and the 12-item Chinese Health Questionnaire —were used in this study.

Results:

Seven of the top ten perceived postpartum stressors were same for the women in despite of their postpartum residence. The results also showed that women who stayed in their own home and who stayed in their own parents associated home perceived higher level of social support than women who stayed in their parents-in-law associated home. The levels of postpartum stress and women’s health status among the four different places of residence did not differ significantly.

Conclusion:

This study validated the function of the postpartum nursing centers and their effectiveness after a short maternity hospital stay.