Abstract:
This study was designed to assess Tanzanian women's perceptions
of their concerns during the early postpartum period and explore
the relationship of these concerns to parity, experience with
child care, age, marital status, religion and tribe. The Lazarus
and Folkman (1984) stress, appraisal, and coping framework guided
the study. A convenience sample of 100 mothers with
uncomplicated vaginal deliveries were selected from Dar-Es-
Salaam. By means of a card-sort, mothers sorted items as
"worries", "interests", "confidences", or "not applicable".
Hotelling's multivariate test, followed by univariate F-tests and
Bonferroni correction determined that primiparas had
significantly more worries and interests than multiparas, and
that multiparas had significantly mor e confidences than
primiparas. Two-sample ~-tests showed that the two groups of
mothers did not differ in their level of worry and interest, but
multiparas' level of confidence was significantly higher than
that of primiparas. Spearman rank order correlations showed that
age categories were negatively correlated with the number of
worries and positively correlated with the number of confidences.
Pearson correlation coefficients showed that parity was
negatively correlated with the number of worries and positively
correlated with the number of confidences. However, parity and
the age of the mother were not independent of each other because
64% of the primiparas were below 20 years and only one multipara
was below 20 years of age. Child-care experience score was
negatively correlated with the number of worries and marginally
correlated with the number of interests and positively correlated
with the number of confidences. Regression of age, parity, and
experience with child care score on the number of worries,
interests, and confidences showed that experience with child care
explained most of the variations in worries and confidences. The
findings indicate the need for postpartum follow-up care to
assist mothers in reducing the number of worries and in
increasing their confidence in dealing with postpartum concerns.
Recommendations suggest the development of postpartum
intervention programmes such as in-hospital teaching and
community-based assessment, guidance, and support.
