Psychological Tension in Pregnancy

Abstract

The study was designed to determine whether degree of psychological tension (1) varied systematically with the trimester of pregnancy, and (2) was related to other obstetric variables and the outcome of the pregnancy. A total of 235 pregnant women were given a short projective test from which an index of tension was computed. Those women tested in the last half of the last trimester had a significantly higher index of tension than did those tested earlier. Degree of tension related positively to amount of weight gained during pregnancy and to length of second stage of labor of multiparae, but not to complications during labor and delivery nor to the physical status of the child. However, a small group of women who showed an extreme degree of tension had a significantly higher incidence of infants who died or were deformed than did those manifesting less tension.