Spouses' Experiences During Pregnancy and the Postpartum: A Program of Research and Theory Development

A program of nursing research was established to test a theory proposing that wives and husbands have similar pregnancy-related experiences. The research was guided by a conceptual framework of the family as a living open system. Findings were conflicting from three studies that investigated the relationship between spouses' strength of identification and similarities in changes in various body image components during and after pregnancy; taken together the findings suggested that spouses do not have similar patterns of change in their body images during pregnancy and the postpartum. Two other studies investigated the relationship between spouses' strength of identification and similarities in their reports of physical and psychological symptoms during pregnancy and the postpartum. In these studies the spouses reported similar physical and psychological symptoms during pregnancy and the postpartum. There was no evidence, however, in any of the studies of a relationship between spouses' strength of identification and similarities in their pregnancy-related experiences. The validity of the theory of similar pregnancy-related experiences and the credibility of the conceptual framework of the family as an open system are questioned.