Survey to measure stress levels in pregnancy

Survey to measure stress levels in pregnancy

Pregnancy can be a stressful time and, with this in mind, Dr Carrie Barber from the University of Waikato has launched an online survey to find out more about stressors among pregnant women.

The survey is open to pregnant women and women of childbearing age, to look at whether and how pregnant women are more stressed and anxious than women who aren’t pregnant.

“It’s clear that the impact of changes and stressful events, and the extent to which those events cause distress, varies across people and situations,” says Dr Barber. “Some cope well and are resilient even in difficult circumstances, and others are more vulnerable and struggle with high levels of distress.”

Dr Barber specialises in clinical psychology, and has a particular interest in children, families, and the transition to parenthood. She has been working on the stress in pregnancy project with another academic from the university, Bridgette Masters, and student Jess Steadman, all from the School of Psychology.

Dr Barber says that one of the most challenging transitions in life is becoming a parent. It involves physical, psychological, social, economic, and practical changes for both parents, and these changes often amount to a pile-up of stressors.

She says it is important to develop strategies for supporting families during pregnancy and early parenting. Often it is difficult for the new parent, as well as for the whanau and professionals around the parent, to know whether distress is part of the normal process of adapting to parenting, or more worrisome and enduring.

“From the results of this survey, we will develop a mobile phone app that provides self-assessment, guided activities and information and psychosocial aspects of the transition to parenting. We recognise this can be a very stressful time, but there are ways of managing this stress.”

The survey takes about 20-30 minutes and can be found at http://psychology.waikato.ac.nz/wellbeing.htm

ENDS

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