Psychological Tension in Pregnancy

The study was designed to determine (1) whether there are any systematic differences in degree of psychological tension over the 40 weeks of pregnancy, and (2) whether degree of psychological tension is related to certain measurable aspects of pregnancy, labor, and delivery and to the outcome of the pregnancy. Pregnant women were asked to draw a person and to make up stories about five TAT cards. An index of tension was computed. For the first part of the study, 200 women were tested, 40 at each of 5 different stages of pregnancy. The 5 groups were equated for eight variables. Those in the last half of the last trimester had a significantly higher index of tension than did those tested earlier in pregnancy. Further research is needed to determine the extent of individual differences. For the second part, the test records of 227 pregnant women were analyzed. There was a significant positive relationship between index of tension and (1) amount of weight gained during pregnancy and (2) length of second stage of labor of multiparas. Psychological tension was not found to relate in other ways to length of labor, nor to complications during labor and delivery or physical status of the child. However, a small group of women (randomly distributed as to time of pregnancy at which they were tested), who showed an extreme degree of psychological tension, had a significantly higher incidence of infants who died or were deformed than did those women manifesting less psychological tension.