Образ ребенка в сознании беременных женщин

Abstract

The article focuses on the issue of the future child’s image in the minds of expecting mothers. The urgency of the issue lies in the fact that the field of prenatal psychology in the Republic of Belarus has been experiencing a great need for more scientific information in this area of study. Currently available research outcomes do not provide a holistic view of the psychological problem and cannot contribute to the process of identifying pregnant women in need of psychological counselling and support. As a result, there is evidence of an increase in the number of expecting mothers who are not psychologically prepared for the change in their social role. The goal of the present research was to study the distinct features of the future child’s image as it is perceived by pregnant women during the term of their first and subsequent pregnancies. The study was conducted at the healthcare institution “Verkhnedvinskaya Central District Hospital” in the Vitebsk Region of the Republic of Belarus. In the course of research, the following methods were applied: “The structure of an individual’s image (hierarchical)” (by Valerii L. Sitnikov) and “Family life from the mother’s point of view” (an adaptation of PARI by E. Scheffer and R. Bell prepared by Tatiana V. Nescheret); mathematical and statistical methods of research results processing. The outcomes of the study enabled the authors to identify the features of the child’s image as perceived by expecting mothers during their first or subsequent pregnancies. It was determined that there are both similarities and differences in the structural components of the image in the perceptions of women who were pregnant for the first time and those who had been pregnant before; regardless of the child’s sex or the number of the mother’s pregnancies, the image was reflected through feminine qualities, and all expecting mothers regardless of the number of pregnancies over-concentrated on the child.