Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Family Studies and Human Services / Walter R. Schumm / Farrell J. Webb / Previous research on the transition to parenthood has focused predominantly on middle-class White married mothers. The present research expands upon this literature by evaluating the transition of non-married, low-income, White and Women of color experiences as new mothers in their transition to parenthood. This investigation uses the Fragile Families Child Wellbeing Study. Data from 1,195 first time mothers were examined. Baseline data on mothers, as well as one-year follow-up data, were used to evaluate the New Mothers’ Relationship Satisfaction Model. This model was developed as a response to the current literature and theory as it related to low-income, people of color, and single never married women who have been overlooked or ignored in the literature. The New Mothers’ Relationship Satisfaction Model examines the effects of expectation fulfillment, father’s behavior, experience of motherhood and family support on mothers’ relationship satisfaction. The model was then used to evaluate different groups of mothers based on their race/ethnicity and then their relationship status. Findings indicated race/ethnicity and relationship status differences among several of the constructs in the New Mothers’ Relationship Satisfaction Model. For some women the experience of motherhood and father’s behavior did not have a significant effect of their relationship satisfaction as predicted by the current literature. This investigation takes the first step in providing a comparison group of new mothers that have been overlooked by much of the research in this area. This research underscores the importance of differences that exist in mothers’ transition to parenthood and points to a need for further research with more diverse populations. Social scientists interested in the transition to parenthood must focus their research and theory on a more diverse population of new mothers in order to fully understand and give meaning to this experience.

A deductive, descriptive, quanitative study was undertaken at Nyangabgwe Hospital, Francistown, Botswana, situated in the north east of the country. Its focus was on the use of partogram by midwives. The population consisted of 395 obstetric records for the period of one month. A sample of 303 obstetrics records was drawn. Data were collected through auditing the bed letters of delivered mothers and interviews with and observation of midwives using the partogram in practice. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) program was used to analyse the data. The findings indicate that there are problems regarding, and factors that can have a negative influence on the use of the partogram by midwives. It is suggested that a supportive teaching programme for the midwives should be designed, that will support the system of supervision in the labour ward that already exists, in the use of the partogram throughout the labour process. / Health Studies / M.A. (Advanced Nursing Sciences)

The study vacillates between the text, the reader and the author. Examining biography and such socio-cultural factors as marriage and cosmology, the reader is equipped with sufficient background which illuminates the ideology behind the text. The cosmological conceptions of the Northern Sotho shed some light on the poet's views on the child's first cry. These assumptions lay a foundation for the religious views expressed in his texts. The contradictions between African religion and Christianity help us comprehend the frustrations of secular and religious lives in our country. These also serve as linchpins towards understanding the pursuit of religious pluralism. The concept 'intertextuality' is explored. Cases of intratextuality and intertextuality which dispute the absolutist view in meaning composition highlight the interrelatedness of texts and how each relationship impacts on meaning. / African Languages / M.A. (African Languages)

Thesis (MA (Psychology))--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / This study aimed to determine whether low-income women residing in a rural community in South Africa experienced any significant difference in the prevalence rates of depressive symptoms postpartum as compared to depressive symptoms prepartum. Thirty women between the ages of 16 and 38 were recruited during pregnancy from the local community clinic in Kylemore, South Africa. The women where assessed for elevated levels of depressive symptomatology using the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) during pregnancy and again at three and six months postpartum. It was found that 18 (60%) of the women reported elevated levels of depressive symptomatology during the prepartum assessment, with 11 (37.9%) and 12 (48%) women reporting elevated levels of depressive symptomatology at the three months and six month postpartum assessment respectively. It was further found that the sample from the current study did not experience any significant difference in the rate of depressive symptomatology from the prepartum assessment to either of the postpartum assessments. The results also suggests that a relationship exists between the levels of depressive symptomatology prepartum and the levels of depressive symptomatology postpartum, as those women who experienced high levels of depressive symptomatology during pregnancy continued to show high levels of depressive symptomatology at the postpartum assessments. The findings from the current study thus suggest that the classification of postpartum depression as a unique and separate entity, that differs from depression occurring in women at other times and from depression as experienced by men, may be misleading. The term suggests a depression that develops following childbirth, while in the current study it seemed that when depressive symptoms were reported postpartum, they were also already apparent during pregnancy. The findings from the current study therefore suggest that the existence of postpartum depression as a distinct diagnosis or illness is problematic – a suggestion that has frequently been suggested in the literature (Aderibigbe, Gureje, & Omigbodun, 1993; Chandran, Tharyan, Muliyil & Abraham, 2002; Cooper, Campbell, Day, Kennerly & Bond, 1988; Cox, Murray & Chapman, 1993; O’Hara, Zekoski, Phillips & Wright, 1990; Patel, Rodrigues, & DeSouza, 2002).

Over the last three decades, the impact of dramatic change in the social, religious, political and economic environment has led to a rapid expansion in the number of women entering the paid labour force in Sri Lanka as elsewhere. However, their identities and workload continue to be defined around caring work, especially for children. Not surprisingly, employed mothers endeavour to balance these two central spheres of their life, family and work. This research focuses on the contradictions of mothers' work-life balance. It does so through an analysis of how successfully (or unsuccessfully) professional and managerial mothers in Sri Lanka combine motherhood with paid work, and how they understand this in terms of gendered identities and social norms. This example also allows an evaluation of western derived theories about mothers' decision making in the context of a developing, Asian country. Grounded theory was used to examine mothers' narratives about life in the family and at work, drawn from in-depth qualitative interviews, along with data from some representative secondary sources, in order to explore these questions. This thesis demonstrates that working women's mothering leads to the formation of a gendered identity which varies according to different socio-cultural and religious opportunities and constraints. Using the Bourdieu approach the research suggests how everyday life operates in terms of habitus, field and capital. However, these working mothers have low capacity to achieve a work-life balance and this may lead to complex social problems.

2010年蘋果推出iPad後，台灣也跟著掀起平板熱潮，並快速普及到中高年齡層使用者。平板現在已經是中年家庭主婦重要的家戶休閒之一。本研究結合休閒領域和性別傳播科技領域探討中年家庭主婦的休閒，分析形成婦女「休閒阻礙」（Leisure constraint）的原因，並觀察平板融入主婦的生活後主婦休閒體驗的變化、平板使用複製過去女性用資通科技進行休閒的特性與限制。 本研究結合使用者日誌與深度訪談探索中年家庭主婦的平板休閒經驗。結果顯示本地中年家庭主婦認為的休閒包含心理閒暇感受，外出活動，社交等，這也反映在她們對於平板休閒的感知。與過往休閒研究歸納的女性休閒特性相似，本地中年主婦的休閒特性包含休閒時間碎片化，習慣多工等，反映她們的休閒受到阻礙。而與其他生命週期的女性不同，步入空巢期的中年主婦因為照顧子女的責任減輕，使她們開始積極追求休閒，休閒意識提高。中年主婦也因為擁有多年家務經驗，使她們發展出抵抗休閒阻礙的策略，獲得更多的休閒機會。 中年主婦的平板使用時機融入她們的生活韻律，因為平板的體積與未連網之故，主婦一旦外出，反而少攜帶；平板之為行動載具的行動性(mobility)未見發揮，平板成為居家休閒的重要裝置。獨自在家時主婦用平板看劇、玩遊戲，主婦也會在此時一邊看電視，一邊用平板，採取「雙螢」休閒模式，極大化休閒體驗。家人同在的晚間家庭時光，主婦平板不離身，陪伴家人、履行情感勞動，透過平板上的社交媒體同步與自己友人聊天，或看喜歡的劇集，沉浸在自己的虛擬空間。 平板為主婦過去透過其他科技物中介的休閒帶來新的意義。然而雖然平板使主婦擺脫不擅電子遊戲的刻板印象、也因平板而掌有觀影權，鬆動過去丈夫主導的家庭觀影秩序，本研究發現母職腳本形成主婦的平板休閒阻礙分別顯現在平板擁有權、使用平板瀏覽資訊、平板的社群通訊軟體使用上。中年家庭主婦休閒受到「妻職」影響，即便主婦用平板休閒受到丈夫中斷，她們也將其視為理所當然，因為經過與丈夫多年的相處磨合，中年婦女大多都能接受與容忍配偶的行為。 / After Apple introduced the iPad in 2010, the tablet quickly earned many middle–aged users' attention in Taiwan. Nowadays, the tablet has become one of the most important household leisure devices for middle-aged housewives. This study adopts diary study and in-depth interviews to explore how the tablet has been integrated into middle–aged housewives' lives. Additionally, it examines what kinds of leisure constraints housewives confront when they use a tablet. This study explores the leisure of Taiwanese middle-aged housewives. The result shows that Taiwanese middle-aged housewives have varied definitions of leisure which include relaxed mental state, outdoor activities and social activities. Those definitions reflect on housewives' feeling about tablet use. What’s more, a number of leisure researchers have indicated fragmented leisure time and multitasking characterize women's leisure. Taiwanese middle-aged housewives' leisure shows similar characteristics. However, Taiwanese middle-aged housewives feel a sense of entitlement with regards to leisure since they no longer have the responsibility of care-taking as their younger peers still carry. Besides, middle-aged housewives have developed strategies to resist and transform leisure constraints imposed on them along the way. The timing of tablet use of middle-aged housewives is closely related to their lifestyle. The finding suggests that the mobility of a tablet is limited. Tablets are heavy and lack network access, which is why housewives reserve their use for domestic leisure. Housewives who are alone at home usually use a tablet to play games or watch dramas. They also watch TV and use the tablet at the same time. Using this “double screen” model, housewives can broaden their leisure experience. During family hours in the evening, housewives bring their tablets to the living room so that they not only show their emotional support to be there with their family but also enjoy their personal tablet at the same time. The nature of leisure and the related images which housewives obtained in the past by using other technology have undergone great transformations. For example, instead of non-gamers or incapable gamers, housewives have proven themselves to be the ones who also enjoy game play. Moreover, the tablet has become housewives' “second screen” with which they can watch any program they like instead of being forced to watch the programs chosen by their husbands. However, the findings suggest the scripted motherhood affects housewives' tablet use, and it reflects on their tablet’s ownership, their use of social media and the web-browsing. The scripted wife- hood also affects housewives' leisure. For instance, their husbands often interrupt their tablet use, but housewives see interruptions as the way things have always been.

Through a content analysis of the maternal relationships in Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and Alice Walker’s In Search of Our Mothers Gardens, the author evaluates how southern black women writers construct black motherhood. This study is based on the premise that Eurocentric paradigms of motherhood confine black mothers to controlling images that continue to criminalize, distort, and devalue black motherhood. The researcher finds that the institution of black motherhood exists independently of Eurocentric paradigms. The conclusions drawn from these findings suggest that black women writers construct motherhood in terms of Womanist leadership. In the aforementioned memoirs, Womanist leadership is learned and defined in the black church. In summation, this thesis finds that southern black women writers use spiritual reconciliation as a form of Womanist leadership.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Porovnanie právnej úpravy zabezpečenia v oblasti tehotenstva a materstva v ČR a SR Diplomová práca rozoberá zabezpečenie v tehotenstve a v materstve v dvoch štátoch a to v ČR a SR a následne ho porovnáva. Cieľom tejto diplomovej práce je analyzovať a porovnať súčasnú právnu úpravu zabezpečenia v tehotenstve a materstve z pohľadu práva sociálneho zabezpečenia a s pohľadu pracovného práva v ČR a SR Práca je členená do piatich kapitol. Prvá kapitola popisuje historický vývoj sociálneho zabezpečenia na území ČR a SR so zameraním na zabezpečenie v tehotenstve a materstve. Druhá kapitola nás uvádza do systému sociálneho zabezpečenia stručne definuje jednotlivé systémy, prvky právnych vzťahov a charakterizuje jednotlivé sociálne udalosti ako tehotenstvo, pôrod, materstvo, nezaopatrenosť dieťaťa. Tretia kapitola rozoberá oblasť nemocenského poistenia postupne v ČR a SR. V prvej časti kapitoly popisuje systém nemocenského poistenia v daných krajinách a následne ho porovnáva. Druhá časť kapitoly je venovaná jednotlivým dávkam nemocenského poistenia a ich vzájomnej komparácií. Štvrtá kapitola je zameraná na zabezpečenie v oblasti tehotenstva a materstva v systéme Štátnej sociálnej podpory a porovnaniu jednotlivých dávok, ktorých cieľom je hmotne zabezpečiť rodiny s malými deťmi. Posledná kapitola je venovaná...

The thesis examines the importance of psychological support from a supplementary person provided to mothers during their pregnancy and mainly during the process of childbirth. Such person may be a partner, relative, midwife, doula, doctor, etc. The aim of this thesis is to find out why the mother chooses to give birth in the presence of the specific person, how important is the psychological (and sometimes also physical) support from an accompanying person for such woman during delivery, or what specific action the mother considers psychologically supportive during the pregnancy and childbirth. Theoretical part describes a psyche of the mum-to-be and her need for psychological support during the pregnancy and the delivery and names the types of support in relation to a person, who is supporting. Practical part will be based on qualitative research carried out as half-structured interviews with mothers, who delivered a baby with accompaniment. The interpretative content analysis will be used to evaluate the interviews. Key words: woman, mother, motherhood, pregnancy, delivery, childbirth, psychological support, partner, doula, midwife