Perceived Physical and Emotional Health Impact of Childbirth on Married Couples in Abia State (Mixed Study)

Abstract

The arrival of the baby in the family usually comes with number of changes that the parents must make in order to accommodate the child. These changes are in form of several learning activities, and personal/collective adjustments in order to perform the roles of parents adequately. However, most parents are not usually prepared for these inevitable changes thereby making them experience a mixed feeling of depression and joy simultaneously. Joy that arise from the arrival of the child and their transition into parenthood; and depression arising from doubt of their readiness for parenthood. In order to understand the impact of child birth on couples in Abia state, the study investigated the perceived physical and emotional health impact of childbirth on married couples. The study used a cross-sectional convergent mixed design to perform the research. 90 couples (180 individuals) were recruited from 9 primary healthcare centres in Abia. The modified RAND-36 item survey (version-1) and interviews guide were used to acquire data for the study. Data was analysed using the RAND 36 item health survey 1.0 scoring method for the quantitative data while thematic analysis was performed on the qualitative data.