ABSTRACT
Pregnancy and childbirth occupy unique positions among the common stressors in the lives of women. Like a serious illness, bearing a child involves dramatic physical changes, intimate and regular contact with medical personnel, and usually culminates in an experience of intense pain. Childbearing, much like an illness, commonly puts emotional and financial demands on a family. And yet unlike an illness, pregnancy is frequently eagerly planned and experienced with great pleasure and excitement. For most women, the pain of childbirth is integrally bound with the joyous anticipation of a new child. Pregnancy and childbirth are paradoxical experiences in which the pregnant woman can represent the epitome of bursting good health, and yet also be sharing many of the same stresses as a seriously ill woman. Even when pregnancy is a happy and planned experience in a woman’s life, the physical and emotional changes that accompany the process clearly constitute major health and social stressors.
