Pregnancy, Birth, Postpartum Research... your input wanted! « Back to Group Discussions

[Jaimee]

So my dh is a professor of family studies and does daily diary research with couples.  He is interested in starting a new study with expecting couples where he gathers daily information for 2 week periods starting as soon in the pregnancy as possible, 2nd tri, 3rd tri, and postpartum.  He plans to gather lots of different information on the couples during these 2 week periods and has asked me to think of what sort of things would be interesting to learn about.  I had some immediate thoughts, but also thought that you guys would have some great ideas as well.  You can think about things on a daily basis like emotions, stress, physical ailments, feelings toward partner, feelings about pregnancy, birth, etc., etc. and you can think about thing in the broader sense like how does this or that affect postpartum depression or birth outcomes.  So, what type of things would you be interested in learning?  Thanks for your help!! 

[Paigekitten]

Sympathy pains!  Every time I'm pregnant my husband experience unusual increased levels of nausea, heartburn, and back pain.  Is it just us??? 

[Abraisme]

My DH needed sympathy naps.  I think this was just an excuse though.  ;)

Originally Posted by Paigekitten 

Sympathy pains!  Every time I'm pregnant my husband experience unusual increased levels of nausea, heartburn, and back pain.  Is it just us??? 

[CDsMom1031]

I don't know how many people this applies to, but DH and I were the first of our friends to have a baby...

As soon as we announced to everyone that we were expecting, *poof*, they all disappeared.

We were no longer in the same place in our lives as all of our friends were. We didn't have anything in common with them anymore. They're all still in the bar scene, we're in the married parent scene.

The emotional damage it did (More to my DH then to me) when he was no longer included was terrible. It upset him so much. He'd never get invited anywhere. It tore him up.

And everyone said it wouldn't matter anymore after kiddo came, but that didn't help while I was still pregnant... While "nothing" had changed, and he was still left out of everything.

Plus, when kiddo came, my DH didn't have anyone to show his son off to.

[Abraisme]

This happened to my DH too.  He had a long transition period when he didn't have any friends.  His old friends were in a different place and it's hard to make new friends when you have a family and work full time.  Our situation was a little different than yours, but it was still hard on him.  I think it's pretty normal and certainly and interesting thing to look into.
 

Originally Posted by TTCChloeOrConner 

I don't know how many people this applies to, but DH and I were the first of our friends to have a baby...

As soon as we announced to everyone that we were expecting, *poof*, they all disappeared.

We were no longer in the same place in our lives as all of our friends were. We didn't have anything in common with them anymore. They're all still in the bar scene, we're in the married parent scene.

The emotional damage it did (More to my DH then to me) when he was no longer included was terrible. It upset him so much. He'd never get invited anywhere. It tore him up.

And everyone said it wouldn't matter anymore after kiddo came, but that didn't help while I was still pregnant... While "nothing" had changed, and he was still left out of everything.

Plus, when kiddo came, my DH didn't have anyone to show his son off to.

[Jaimee]

These are good!  I would not have thought of them!  My mind immediately goes to things like how the type of care provider affects everything from daily emotions to birth outcomes to breastfeeding initiation.  This is why it's really good to get thoughts from a broader audience, for sure!

Okay so...

• Sympathy pains in partner (also referred to as couvade)
• The effects of social changes due to the pregnancy/baby transition

[Paigekitten]

Originally Posted by TTCChloeOrConner 

I don't know how many people this applies to, but DH and I were the first of our friends to have a baby...

As soon as we announced to everyone that we were expecting, *poof*, they all disappeared.

We were no longer in the same place in our lives as all of our friends were. We didn't have anything in common with them anymore. They're all still in the bar scene, we're in the married parent scene.

The emotional damage it did (More to my DH then to me) when he was no longer included was terrible. It upset him so much. He'd never get invited anywhere. It tore him up.

And everyone said it wouldn't matter anymore after kiddo came, but that didn't help while I was still pregnant... While "nothing" had changed, and he was still left out of everything.

Plus, when kiddo came, my DH didn't have anyone to show his son off to.

That kind of happened to us, but after our second.  It's been a lonely couple of years. We still see our old friends occasionally, but we don't get invited to things anymore because we always have our kids along.

[KayPea]

nak. our biggest issue since getting pregnant the first time has been housing. Suddenly where we lived mattered so much more than before. it also affected our housing search - since we were renting we found a huge prejudice against families, even though that's totally illegal. 

But Vancouver still has a bubble market - extra super high housing costs and really miniscule vacancy rate.  I know that is really different in parts of the States.  So that would be interesting too - how your economy/political system/big picture thing can affect a family individually.