Changes in psychological health and the marital relationship through childbearing: Transition or process as stressor?

Childbearing has generally been considered to have its greatest effect on the psychological health and marital relationship of individuals during the transition from childlessness to parenthood. Further, these detrimental effects are said to be greater for females than males. Psychological wellbeing, distress, and spouse dissatisfaction were recorded in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy and three months postpartum for 210 subjects (107 females and 103 males). Multiparous subjects reported higher levels of distress and lower levels of wellbeing than primiparous subjects throughout the study period. Contrary to expectations, there was a general increase in distress and decrease in wellbeing with no differential effect for either parity or sex. However, self-reported spouse dissatisfaction increased significantly more for first-time mothers than for any other group. The results indicate that the process of childbearing has a deleterious effect on psychological health irrespective of whether the individual is an experienced parent or not.