This research project explored how mothers experiencing depression after childbirth perceived their mental illness. Illness perceptions were assessed across the dimensions outlined within the Self-Regulatory Model (SRM, Leventhal, Nerenz & Steele, 1984) via the use of the Revised Illness Perceptions Questionnaire (IPQ-R, Moss-Morris, Weinman, Petrie, Horne, Cameron & Buick, 2002). The psychometric properties of the IPQ-R within this clinical sample and relationships between illness perceptions, depression severity and maternal bonding were assessed. A literature review of the use of the IPQ and IPQ-R within mental health identified that these measures with modifications (in particular to the causal and identity subscales) were largely reliable and valid measures of assessing illness perceptions in mental health. The illness dimensions outlined within the SRM were largely endorsed within the clinical populations sampled, offering support of the applicability of the SRM within mental health. Mental illnesses were consistently viewed as chronic with serious negative consequences. Perceptions regarding mental illness consequences, chronicity and controllability were associated with coping strategies and help-seeking. Treatment adherence and attitudes towards taking medication were associated with illness controllability beliefs. The IPQ-R modified for depression after childbirth was shown to be a reliable measure for assessing illness perceptions within this clinical sample and was shown to be reliable over a four-week time period.Mothers experiencing depression after childbirth perceived their depression as having a moderate number of symptoms, a high number of negative consequences and responded to their depression with a number of emotions. Mothers perceived having a coherent understanding of their difficulties, believing that depression was amenable to treatment and personal control and that depression was cyclical in nature. Commonly reported symptoms experienced attributed to depression included depressed mood, difficulties concentrating, loss of interest/pleasure in activities, fatigue/loss of energy and sleep difficulties. Frequently endorsed causes of depression included stress or worry, hormonal changes, own emotional state, family problems, mental attitude and own behaviour. Interestingly, no significant difference was found between illness perceptions of mothers who previously experienced psychological problems and mothers who had not.Mothers who perceived having many symptoms and a high emotional response to depression were more likely to report higher depression severity. Whereas mothers who believed they had control over their depression were more likely to report lower depression severity. Illness identity and consequence beliefs were associated with maternal bonding difficulties. The project's findings were presented with reference to previous literature with implications for theory and clinical practice explored. Difficulties and limitations of the research and its related theory were discussed in addition to reflections upon the research project. Possible improvements to the research procedure and areas for future research were also identified.

Thesis title: Regime intervention for body mass reduction after birth Objective: The aim is to present clear and comprehensive information about three women during the six weeks after childbirth. Then evaluate the regime measures leading to weight reduction and choose the right excercises to stregthen weak muscles and to improve physical condition of these women. Methodology: This thesis deals with weight reduction after childbirth. Quantitative research was used in the practical part and the main method was a case study. Three women aged 27- 35 years were the monitored probands. The first observed woman was at the time of childbirth 30 years old and she gave psysiological childbirth. The second observed woman was at the time 30 years old and she gave also a psysiological childbirth. The third observed woman was at the time of childbirth 27 years and she gave birth by the Ceasarean section. All of the three women were primiparas. They wrote all their physical activities, frequency of food during the day and their weight loss in postpartum period. An indirect field research, more precisely bioimpedance technique, was used to determine body composition in this thesis. For the thesis purposes BODYSTAT 1500 device was used. Results of work: The result of this work is evaluation, comparison and summary...

Bakgrund: Flera faktorer påverkar sexuell hälsa bl a biologiska och fysiologiska faktorer samt genus. Genus i sin tur påverkas av samhällets värderingar som i sin tur styrs av dess historia, politik, kulturella värderingar, ekonomiska förutsättningar mm. Tidigare studier har visat att det finns en brist i kunskapsbildning och uppföljning av kvinnors sexuella hälsa åren efter förlossning. Avsikten med denna studien är att få ökad insikt i kvinnornas upplevelse av sin sexuella hälsa åren efter förlossning. Syfte: Att sammanställa tidigare forskning kring kvinnors upplevda sexuella hälsa åren efter förlossning, genom forskningsfrågan: “Hur upplever kvinnor sin sexuella hälsa upp till sju år efter förlossning?” Metod: Detta är en kvalitativ litteraturstudie och inklusionskriterierna var tidigare friska kvinnor utan patologiska graviditeter, samt kvinnor som fött barn med episiotomi och kejsarsnitt. Däremot exkluderades tvillingfödslar och spontana sfinkterrupturer av grad 3-4. Studien avser åren efter förlossning, max sju år. Sexuell hälsa åren efter förlossning ur kvinnans perspektiv skall vara huvudfokus. Artiklarna ska vara på engelska eller svenska och de ska vara publicerade från 1960 till 2020. Tolv artiklar valdes ut och dessa granskades via latent kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Resultat: Visar att många kvinnor lider av en försämrad sexuell hälsa åren efter förlossning. Detta beror på flera faktorer, de som påverkar mest är: fysiska förändringar, amning, barnets påverkan, relationernas förändring och kvinnornas upplevelse av sjukvårdens bemötande. Dessa presenteras i studiens fyra teman. Konklusion: Kvinnorna upplever en försämring av sin sexuella hälsa och önskar ökat stöd från vården. Det krävs en bredare kunskap hos vårdpersonalen för att kunna bemöta kvinnornas önskemål och en fördjupad förståelse kring hur genus påverkar kvinnors sexuella hälsa. / Background: There are several factors that affect women's sexual health, among those are biological and physiological wellbeing and gender. Furthermore gender is derived from society’s values that comes from history, politics, socio-economic prerequisites among other things. Previous studies have shown a lack of knowledge and a lack of follow-up of women’s sexual health the years after childbirth. The purpose of this study is to get a deeper understanding of women’s experiences of their sexual health the years after childbirth. Aim: The aim of this study is to compile previous studies about women's experienced sexual health up til seven years after childbirth. This is done through the question “How do women experience their sexual health the years after childbirth?” Method: This is a qualitative literature review that contains twelve articles. The inclusion criteria is previous healthy women with no pathological pregnancies, women who experienced episiotomy or cesarean section during childbirth. However, twins and spontaneous sphincter tears of the 3de or 4th degree have been excluded. This studies scope is limited to the first seven years after childbirth. The articles are written in swedish or english and published between 1960- 2020. Latent content analysis is used to analyse the material. Result: Many women experience a loss in sexual health the years after childbirth. It depends on several different things such as physical changes, breast feeding, the impact of having a child, changes in relationships and how women experience the meeting with health care. All of this is presented through the four themes of our study. Conclusion: There is a general loss in sexual health among women after childbirth and they wish for better support from health care professionals. To meet this demand healthcare professionals need more knowledge and to actually apply it. Furthermore, a deeper understanding how gender affects women’s sexual health is needed.

「懷孕」應該是正面、美好且有益於整體國家社會的事情，對雇主也是有利的，因她們也具有「再生產」的功能，讓雇主能有源源不絕的勞動力，可惜許多雇主對懷孕婦女的偏見仍然存在，對懷孕婦女工作能力與復工意願皆有所質疑，然而國外相關研究結果卻指出若雇主能夠摒棄偏見，從一開始就願意接受懷孕婦女，提供家庭支持方案，如工作調整、彈性工時或托育措施等協助懷孕婦女，不僅能減少員工在工作與家庭間的衝突，更可保留優秀女性人才、提升組織效率與員工生產力，進而創造「勞資雙贏」的局面。 因此，本研究以我國懷孕婦女為對象來瞭解組織內家庭支持方案的實施與提供，對懷孕員工的組織承諾及產後復工時機之影響。本研究結果發現如下： 一、懷孕婦女的組織承諾偏向普通程度，並未如雇主所認為對工作不忠誠。 二、組織提供的家庭支持方案越多，懷孕婦女的組織承諾越高。組織提供越多的家庭支持方案，會影響員工對組織的情感，這些好感會轉化成對組織的忠誠。 三、工作＼家庭文化對組織承諾皆具有正向預測力。因此，組織文化是對家庭友善的文化，有助於提昇懷孕婦女的組織承諾。 四、收入低的懷孕婦女，產後復工意願較低，即使願意復工，復工時機也比較晚。對收入低的懷孕婦女來說，離職或請繼續育嬰假的機會成本比較低，並衡量市場工資與托嬰費用後，選擇留在家中照顧新生兒減輕家庭經濟負擔。 五、工作＼家庭文化「主管支持」構面與懷孕婦女產後復工意願有顯著正相關，且具正向預測力。這顯示出當公司主管能夠很敏感的注意到有家庭責任之員工的需求，並能積極提供協助與支持，則其懷孕員工在產後會更願意復工。 六、雇主提供的產假越長，懷孕婦女有更多的時間休養，產後會更願意復工。 七、雇主提供無薪產假的懷孕婦女比雇主提供全薪產假者，產後復工時機較晚。 大體上，我國經驗研究在相當程度上是支持西方國家的研究結果，但我國家庭支持方案的實施狀況仍不夠普遍。家庭支持方案的提供的確可提昇懷孕婦女的組織承諾，有助於減少離職率，大幅降低企業招募和重新訓練的成本，故我國企業應該積極引進家庭支持方案，達到勞資雙贏的結果。 / “Pregnancy” should be a positive, beautiful and beneficial thing to the society. It is also good to employers, because pregnant women provide a “reproductive” function, with which employers would not face the labor shortage. But many employers still have some prejudices against pregnant women. For instance, pregnant workers are considered not being able to concentrate on their jobs, and won’t come back to work after childbirth. In accordance with the relevant findings of the study abroad, this study found employers can abandon their prejudices, and provide family-responsive benefits, such as job adjustments, flextime or childcare programs, it can not only reduce the work and family conflicts, but also retain the women laborforce, improve organizational efficiency and productivity, thereby creating a “win-win” situation. The major findings below: 1.Pregnant workers’ organizational commitments are as normal as workers in general are. Pregnant workers are not unfaithful to employers . 2.The more family-responsive benefits employers provide, the more loyalty pregnant workers would have. 3.Work-family culture has positive impact on to organizational commitments of pregnant workers. Pregnant workers’ organizational commitments will be enhanced when the corporate culture is family-friendly. 4.Pregnant workers in low wages tend to stay at home, and won’t return to work after childbirth. Even they will return, the timing they return would be delayed. 5.If supervisors are sensitive to employee’ family and personal concerns, the pregnant workers prefer returning to work after childbirth. 6.If employers provide longer maternity leaves, pregnant workers would have enough time to take a rest, and they would tend to return to work after childbirth. 7.Pregnant workers who got unpaid maternity leaves return to work later than who got paid maternity leaves. In sum, this study supports the findings of western countries in a certain extent. But the family-responsive benefits are not popular in Taiwan. If organizations provide family-responsive benefits, pregnant workers’ organizational commitments will be enhanced. It can also reduce the turnover rate and the costs of recruitment and training. For the above reasons, the organizations in Taiwan should introduce family-responsive benefits and create a “win-win” situation.

Master's thesis called Spirituality of Faithful Women in Pregnancy and after the Birth focuses on meaning of spirituality, expressing of spirituality and possible transformation of women's spirituality in pregnancy and after the birth. The thesis is divided into theoretical and research part. The theoretical part contains three chapters. The aim of the first chapter is to define the term of spirituality. It deals with spirituality as a dimension of personality, and spirituality as a need. This part also presents the seven dimensions of Christian spirituality, spirituality of women and the spirituality of motherhood. The second chapter describes the term of pregnancy, childbirth and the period after the birth from the perspective of a holistic approach. The third chapter focuses on spirituality in pregnancy and after the birth. This part contains biblical-theological perspective of pregnancy and childbirth and includes the Roman Catholic Church point of view. The research part of the thesis uses a qualitative social science approach with biographical research design. The goal is to find out the meaning of spirituality in pregnancy and after the birth for women of the Roman Catholic Church, and to find out, how the spirituality is changed and how it is manifested. Master's thesis is written in the...

Bakgrund: Av alla föräldrar till barn som föds i Sverige varje år är det ca 40 % som är förstföderskor. Omställningen kan bli stor när man blir förälder för första gången och behovet av stöd till båda föräldrarna är stort. Föräldrar är i behov av stöd i föräldrarollen, frågor som rör barnet samt social gemenskap med andra föräldrar i samma situation. Hembesöket har stor betydelse för att skapa en god relation med föräldrarna.Syfte: Syftet med studien var att beskriva BVC-sjuksköterskors upplevelser av förstagångsföräldrars behov av stöd under barnets första levnadsår, samt vad som varviktigt att tänka på för att främja god kontakt.Metod: Studien har en beskrivande design med kvalitativ ansats. Sex sjuksköterskor på två olika barnavårdscentraler i Mellansverige deltog. Data samlades in via semistrukturerade intervjuer, personliga – och telefonintervjuer. Materialet analyserades med kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Huvudresultat: I studien framkom att föräldrarna var i behov av stöd när det gällde deras egna mående både fysiskt som psykiskt, samt frågor som berörde barnet. Många mammor kunde ha fysiska symtom efter förlossning samt känna nedstämdhet och depressiva symtom. Behovet av social gemenskap och vara med i föräldragrupp efterfrågades när barnet blev lite äldre. Vidare framkom att det var viktigt att skapa en god och förtroendefull relation med föräldrarna och hembesökets betydelse betonades i samband med detta. Slutsats: Upplevelserna hos sjuksköterskorna i studien var att föräldrarna var i behov av stöd framförallt under barnets första sex månader. Behovet av stöd varierade utefter barnets ålder, samt utefter vilka personliga förutsättningar förstagångsföräldrarna hade. Vidare upplevde sjuksköterskorna att hembesök var av stor betydelse, när relationen med föräldrarna skulle grundas och det var ett bra tillfälle att skapa goda och förtroendefulla relationer. Resultatet i föreliggande studie kan ligga till grund för förbättringsarbete inom BVC / Background: Of all children who is born every year in Sweden are 40% first time mothers. The change can be huge when you become a parent for the first time, and the need of support for both parent is great. Parents need support in their parental role, questions concerning the child and social fellowship with other parents in the same situations. The home visit is very importance for creating a good relationship with the parents. Aim: The purpose of the study was to describe nurses in child health care experiences of first time parents need for support during the child’s first year of life, and what is important to think about in order to promote good contact.Method: The study has a descriptive design with qualitative approach. Six nurses at two child care centers in central Sweden was participated. Data were collected via semi structured interviews, personal- and telephone interviews. The material was analyzed with qualitative content analysis.Main results: The study revealed that the parents were in need of support with regard to their own physically and mentally health, as well as issues that concerned the child. Many mother could have physical symptoms after childbirth as well as feel depressed and depressive symptoms. The need of social community and being part of parent group vas demand, when the child got a little older. Furthermore, it emerged that it was important to create a good and trusting relationship with the parents and the importance of home visit was emphasized in connection with this. Conclusion: The experiences of the nurses in the study was that the parents were in need of support, especially during the child’s first six month. The need for support varied according to the child’s age and according to the personal circumstances of the first- time parents. Furthermore, the nurses felt that home visits were of great importance, when the relationship with the parents was to established and it was a good opportunity to create good and trusting relationships. The results of the present study can form the basis for improvement work within child health care.

Title: Methods of secondary prevention of the pelvic floor after childbirth Objectives: This is a theoretical work with a descriptive-analytical part. It includes an analysis of the literature from available sources, an analysis of active approaches in the secondary prevention of the pelvic floor and the creation exercise unit for further research. Methods: Literature analysis including processing of information from available sources. Results: Handbook of pelvic floor training with methodical descriptions. Keywords: Pelvic girdle, pregnancy, gynecological weaknesses after childbirth, incontinence, pelvic organ prolapse, sexual dysfunction, pelvic floor examination, Arnold Kegel method, Ludmila Mojžíšová method, Alexander method, Feldenkrais method, Cantienica, exercise unit