MATERNAL REACTIONS TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF FETAL SEX BASED ON SEX PREFERENCE.
Contributors: University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Published: 1988
Number of pages: 98
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Health Sciences, Mental Health.; Psychology, General.
Description: With the advent of prenatal diagnosis, "objective referents of personhood: sex, size and shape, condition, appearance and behavior" (Rubin, 1984, p. 128) can be partially established. The revelation of the unborn child's sex may alter the maternal identity development and the accomplishment of maternal tasks of pregnancy described by Rubin (1984) and, consequently, alter nursing management.

A descriptive design was used to characterize maternal reactions to the knowledge of fetal sex based on sex preference. Rubin's maternal tasks of pregnancy and maternal identity concepts and the investigator-developed parental sex preference model composed the conceptual framework for the study.

The population was 300 females with singleton pregnancies who had an amniocentesis for fetal chromosome studies and met the following sample criteria: (a) fetal karyotype and other studies were normal, (b) knowledge of fetal sex desired, and (c) sex preference established. Eighty-eight subjects, 50 who attained their sex preference and 38 who did not attain their sex preference, comprised the final sample.

Maternal reactions to the knowledge of fetal sex were ascertained through an investigator-developed questionnaire which participants answer in writing. Sample characteristics were summarized using descriptive statistics and the mothers' narrative responses were subjected to content analysis. The categories for content analysis were safe passage, acceptance by others, binding-in to the child, giving of oneself, replication, fantasy, and dedifferentiation.

Maternal sex preferences were equally split between males and females. However, there were differences in the way subjects who attained their sex preference and subjects who did not attain their preferred fetal sex spoke of their fetuses. It is recommended that new technology (pre-natal diagnosis techniques) and research findings be incorporated into Rubin's (1984) model and encourage the model's use as a basis for maternal assessments. Further recommendations are specific to nursing practice and research on sex preference phenomena and the effects of non-attainment on the mother, fetus/child, and family.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-08, Section: B, page: 3111.

Thesis (D.S.N.)--UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA AT BIRMINGHAM, 1988.

School code: 0005.