A Study On Mother Role Change And Adaptation Of Novice Mother In The First Year After Delivery

The birth of a child is an important life event in a woman’s life.They are full of expectation and joy to become mothers,but they often experience negative emotions such as anxiety,loss,helplessness and even depression after giving birth.This is largely related to the newly added mother role.Faced with the new mother role,whether they can adapt smoothly will have an important impact on their own emotions and cognition,the healthy development of the baby,and the harmony of the family.This research describes and explains the maternal role change and adaptation process of novice mothers in the first year of postpartum from the perspective of psychology,analyzes the maternal role adaptation status and influencing factors of novice mothers in the first year of postpartum,and constructs a dynamic development model of their mother’s role.This study adopts qualitative research methods,taking 31 people from 15 families with 0-1 year old babies as the research sample,including 15 novice mothers,11 husbands,and 5 elders.Conduct semi-structured interviews on the research samples,collect data by recording during the interview,and conduct coding analysis based on grounded theory on the transcription of the interview,including three coding steps of open coding,axis coding,and core coding.Keeping records of reflexivity throughout the research process and ensure the effectiveness of the research.Through the coding analysis of grounded theory orientation,this study found that the process of mother role adaptation of novice mothers is accompanied by the perception of physiological changes,which generally go through the following four stages: the role fantasy stage,the role conflict stage,the role adjustment stage and the role integration stage.During pregnancy,family members reached a consensus on "mother-infant integration" and formed a state of high attention and support centered on pregnant mothers.The birth of the baby broke the consensus,that is,novice mothers maintain the cognition of "mother-infant integration",but the elders quickly realized "mother-infant separation",and the husband’s understanding swayed between them,and family members separated mother-infant.The different understanding of the mother role has led to conflicts.In the face of role conflicts,family members have adopted certain adjustment behaviors,which are reflected in the learning behavior of novice mothers,the husband’s parenting behavior and the response to the support and expectations of novice mothers,as well as the elders’ compromise or persistence in parenting methods.After different adjustment behaviors,two parenting modes are finally formed,namely,mother-centered or family member checks and balances.The results show that the mother role adaptation of novice mothers in the first year of postpartum experiences four stages: role fantasy,role conflict,role adjustment and role integration.The mother role adaptation of novice mothers is a process of gradual adaptation under the synergistic effect of the novice mother’s learning behavior,the husband’s positive response and the elder’s assisted parenting.