How Mothers Encounter Stress in the Early Postpartum Period

Stressful Factors and Coping Styles of Women With Babies 0-3 Months Old

This is a report on a descriptive study that was conducted among women who had babies between the 0-3 months age in order to understand the way they deal with the varied stresses that they go through during that postpartum period. It describes the problems that these mothers encounter due to baby care, self-care and social life, these three being the main sources of their stress. The article highlights the varied statistics of the women who were affected by the different causes as well as the different interventions that have been taken by different countries in ensuring that women at that stage of life can cope with the physiological as well as the emotional changes that they undergo after birth.

There are as many as 80% of women who suffer postpartum depression, otherwise referred to as "baby blues." This depression is manifest through irritability, difficulty in concentrating, crying, anger, loss of interest in social activities and difficulty in sleeping among other symptoms (Baby Care Center, 2015). This then means that to help this vast majority of women avoid or overcome the baby blues, the absolute understanding of the postpartum depression by both the mother and the health care workers is of paramount importance. The understanding of these factors entailed in the article will help the psychiatrists and the health nurse practitioners, particularly those dealing with women just after giving birth, equip themselves with the necessary knowledge and skills to physically, socially and psychologically handle their patients.

This descriptive study was conducted in Turkey, in a region called Ankara where three different hospitals were involved and a sample size of 368 women were involved in the research. The data was collected from outpatient clinics among the literate, married women who had babies from 0-3 months old for the purpose of this research. This was a strict sample selection criteria that gave the research a definite sample to work with hence the higher consistency in the information collected. Questionnaires were used in collection of the data and information and it was divided into two sections, the open ended questions part and the closed ended questions part. This was a strategic way of ensuring comprehensive information was gathered from the mothers whether the respondent was more inclined towards the closed ended questions or open ended question, they had equal chances of comprehensively expressing their responses. The other data collection tool that is significant to note in this study was the ways of coping with stress inventory, which is a tool that was developed in the 1980 by Folkman and Lazarus (Deniz C. & Ayaz S., 2013). This tool is central in that it helps in gathering the problem oriented and emotion-oriented mechanisms of dealing with stress. This gives more credibility to the research since this is a tool that has been tested, approved and used over the years to give reliable data in researches such as this.

On the level of information that the women had, it is noted that 78.6% of the women who participated received information from the medical practitioners about the and also 69.3% of the women received help with the care of the baby from the family members, this leaves a significant 21.4% of the women fumbling with information on how to care for the baby on their own and again another significant 30.7% burdened with the sole responsibility of taking care of the baby without any external help. This indicates that apart from lacking information, many women are susceptible to stressors due to the drastic change in expectations and single-handed approach to these changes and challenges.

These women who participated pointed out three major personal problems; lack of sleep (90.4%), breast problems (73.6%) and sexual problems (45.3%). The challenges related to baby care were baby gastrointestinal problems (41%), feeding problems (33.5%) and moniliasis and nappy rush (23.6%). It is also significant to note that 77.3% of the women reported having problems in their social life like not having sufficient time with friends and no time for other recreation activities. From these statistics, it is worth noting that the significant majority of the challenges faced are those related to the mothers' personal life, they occupy the higher percentage and lesser percentage on the child care. This is an indicator that the mothers suffer a lot after birth and when handling the 0-3 months old babies, particularly if they have to do it on their own. These problems noted in the study to lead to stress.

The article does not stop at highlighting the problems, but suggests significant solutions which are important to in the nursing practice. It proposes that the women need to be provided with nursing care within the home environment in order to help cope with these problems and effectively avoid stress. To handle the social challenges, the women first need to be informed by the medical practitioners of the possible expected changes that may come about and be made ready to cope with such. Then, the husbands also need to be educated on the same and be made ready to support the women in the postpartum period.

There are several positive points that the article brings forth and become the strength of the research. One is that, bearing that such researches can have significant social and emotional impact on the respondents and the family members, it was highlighted that ethical considerations were strictly adhered to in line with the culture and ethics of the people and consent forms were signed before one participated in the research. This was a positive consideration that would ensure the respondent is protected as is required by research ethics.