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Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 233 (2016) 450 454

Annual International Scientific Conference Early Childhood Care and Education, ECCE 2016,
12-14 May 2016, Moscow, Russia

Pregnant womanprenate system

Ksenia V. Kuleshovaa, Nadezhda D. Tvorogovaa *
a
I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, 8-2 Trubetskaya st., Moscow 119991, Russia

Abstract

The intrauterine period is considered to be a special age in human life. Theres been considerable data accumulated on
psycho-emotional interaction between the mother and her unborn child. The authors have constructed a model of possible
development directions of women during pregnancy. Empirical research shows that during pregnancy a woman has a chance
to gain a lot of traits peculiar to self-actualizing persons. A number of pregnant women (14 out of 50) classified as self-
actualizing had peak experiences, three of them felt absolutely happy (plateau experiences) during pregnancy. Psychological
risks for the well-being of a surrogate mother were considered.

2016
2016Published by Elsevier
The Authors. Ltd. This
Published is an openLtd.
by Elsevier access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of ECCE 2016.
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of ECCE 2016.
Keywords: Intrauterine development factors; Mental development of pregnant women; Pregnant womans self-actualization; Pregnant
womans metapleasure

1. Introduction

We studied psychological factors of a childs intrauterine development taking into account the concept of safe
motherhood formulated in the 1980s by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a set of actions promoting the
birth of children without negative effects on womens health.
By analyzing the intrauterine environment of the fetus before its birth we noted the fact that emotions are the
binding mechanism between the mental and somatic spheres of a human being [1]. Being systemically integrated
emotional reactions involve practically all the organs, processes and functional systems of the organism [2].
The emotional reaction to pregnancy is known to depend on whether it is desired, it has been planned or not.
Womens emotional reactions vary because of different motivation, even owing to a normal physiological course
of pregnancy. A woman has to adapt to the new situation by restructuring the psychological reality, changing her
motivational sphere, value orientations, purposes, through modifying her behavior, changing her cognitive and

* Tvorogova N.D.Tel.: +8- 905-504-8788; fax: +0-000-000-0000 +8-499-255-0701.

E-mail address:n.tvorogova@gmail.com

1877-0428 2016 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of ECCE 2016.
doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2016.10.183
 Ksenia V. Kuleshova and Nadezhda D. Tvorogova / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 233 (2016) 450 454 451

behavioral stereotypes, social roles, correcting her self-image, etc. The success / difficulties of adaptation will
manifest themselves in her psycho-emotional states.

2. Pregnant woman prenate system

The intrauterine period is considered to be a special age and a special step of embodiment in a human life. The
latter includes the following stages [3]: (a) the crisis of otherness (fertilization-conception, separation of the
fertilized egg from the mother's organism, prenatal war between the embryo and the mother [4]), (b) the stage
of the acceptance of the compatibility by the embryo (fetus), (c) the crisis of fetal life (separation of the fetus
through movement), (d) the development stage (the intrauterine baby, its regular movements, their compliance to
the mothers messages, dialogue establishment), (e) the crisis of intrauterine infancy (the animation stage).
All the organs of a developing fetus are sensitive to intrauterine conditions; the external environment may also
an effect on its development. The last few decades have seen the acceptance of the theoretical provision,
according to which, as a result of embodiment a fetus is a conscious, perceiving, acting being. There is data
available to the effect that prenatal events are remembered and are able to influence further development; a fetus
absorbs the parents experience and feelings [5]. A theory of intrauterine programming has been developed since
the 1980s (the research by Prof. David Barker from the University of Southampton, the U.K). At the same time, a
fetus has also unique prenatal experience of its own, which does not depend on that of its parents [6]. The
mechanisms of this phenomenon are still unclear.
The physiology and pathophysiology data on intrauterine development were generalized in a monograph by
N.L. Garmashova and N.N. Konstantinova [7]. The data were provided on possible disturbances of the mothers
adaptation to the embryo and the embryos to the mother. An attempt was made to consider the prenate (an
unborn child) and the mother in the form of one mother-placenta-fetus system sharing the common organ (the
placenta), general boundaries (corporally and mentally), and physiology and mental functioning symbiotically
connected, dependent on each other. Data on the psycho-emotional interaction between the mother and her
unborn child was accumulated [8]. The consideration of the mother-and-child interaction from the position of
quantum physics, the corpuscular-wave theory gives a powerful justification of the need to create a comfort zone
around the pregnant family.
Psychoanalysts focused their attention on how important it was to form the childs image in the would be
mothers imagination [9]. M. Marcone (1993) noted that the pregnant womans libido attaches itself to the
fetus [10].
One of the main new formations of the pregnancy period is the emergence of intraceptive sensory experience
of interaction with the fetus (natural sensations associated with the fetuss movements emerge from the second
half of the pregnancy). The internal dialogue between mother and child emerges usually during this period.
The changes occurring in the pregnant womans psyche are interconnected in many respects with the
psychological situation in the family that influences in turn also the future mothers physical condition, that of the
child (socio-psychosomatic relations, in N.D. Tvorogovas terminology [11]) and the relationships between the
two. The mother and fathers love forms a common emotional field for the child.
If a woman is carrying an unwanted child, it already loses its basic trust in the mother and the world while still
in the womb [12]. The fetuss movements are accompanied in her by sharply negative sensations aggravating her
general psychic tension [13]. Certain deviations of the psychological component of the gestational dominant from
the optimal one were observed in 68% of the cases in women with unplanned pregnancy [12].
Based on the analysis of relevant scientific literature we constructed a model of possible development
directions for women during pregnancy. The model includes factors influencing the development directions. The
following directions of a womans development are distinguished: 1) adaptive development; it has three
options: a) a successful ending with physical, mental and social adaptation; b) a painfully disadaptive one
(emergence, exacerbation of mental and physical diseases); c) disadaptive development, which manifests itself in
452 Ksenia V. Kuleshova and Nadezhda D. Tvorogova / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 233 (2016) 450 454

a pregnancy ending in miscarriage (a spontaneous abortion); 2) healthy development (according to the

understanding of health as proposed by WHO); during her pregnancy a woman has a chance to surpass herself by
developing in the direction of her personal maturity; the state of well-being she receives for it being her reward
[14]; 3) making a decision to exit the state of pregnancy by means of an abortion procedure. The empirical
evidence of this development model was required.

3. Empirical research

3.1. S subjects

The empirical base of the research was provided by the Clinic of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Sechenov
First Moscow State Medical University. The total sample consisted of 569 women including 369 pregnant
women, 100 women after an abortion, 20 women in the postpartum period, 73 women for whom the pregnancy
theme was irrelevant during the survey, 2 groups of pregnant women aged 20-30 years (25 women) and 40-44
years (25 women). All the women belonged to the healthy group according to their medical indicators.

3.2. Research methods

The following methods were used in the research to achieve the objectives: a) questioning; b) interviewing; c)
observation at the workplace; d) a set of psycho-diagnostic techniques to identify the level of personality self-
actualization, mental states, self-understanding and interaction with the social world [15]; e) standard psycho-
diagnostic techniques designed to assess the subjects life quality, quantify the positive or negative effect of the
body image on life quality, measure trait and state anxiety, study differential emotions, assess mental activation,
interest, emotional tone, tension.

3.3. Research results

As the result of the empirical research, the following was revealed.

1) The indicators of the physical and mental quality of life (assessed by the SF-36 questionnaire) are in general
below the norm in the pregnant women surveyed.
2) The women consider the state of social disadvantage (a low material standard of living, unstable
relationships with the child's father) as the main reason for their decision to have an abortion.
3) In case of continuing her pregnancy the womans psycho-emotional state is also influenced by: a) the
presence / absence of pregnancy experience (primipara / multipara); b) the presence / absence of events, states,
which the woman considers as stressful; c) the presence / absence of the support on the part of the child's father
(irrespective of the fact whether their marriage is registered or not).
4) During her pregnancy the woman has a chance to gain many traits peculiar to self-actualizing persons (the
evidence for her healthy development during this period). The self-actualizing pregnant women differ a lot
statistically from not self-actualizing ones in the following measures: (a) anxiety (they have a low level of trait
anxiety); (b) activity (they have high activity by interacting with the object and social worlds and self-actualize
successfully). At the same time, like not self-actualizing pregnant women they may be in either good or bad
health.
5) A number of pregnant women (14 out of 50) classified as self-actualizing had peak experiences, three of
them felt absolutely happy (plateau experiences) during their pregnancy. The need for reproduction can be
considered both as one of womans basic needs and as one of meta-needs (in A. Maslow's classification [14]); it
can also be considered as a special manifestation form of the need for self-realization. For this reason the
 Ksenia V. Kuleshova and Nadezhda D. Tvorogova / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 233 (2016) 450 454 453

satisfaction of this need causes metapleasure, the experience of the highest level of happiness in a self-actualizing
pregnant woman.
6) The self-actualizing persons and not self-actualizing ones were found to be both in the group of young
women and in the group of older parturient women. Though there were a lot more self-actualizing women in
the second group. The unconditional acceptance of the pregnancy, joyful expectation of motherhood and
unconditional acceptance of the yet unborn child influence a womans self-actualization during her pregnancy.

4. The purpose of the further research

We considered psychological risks for the well-being of a surrogate mother. A pregnant womans everyday
love for her yet unborn child is an important step in the direction of the healthy development of her personality.
This love allows the woman to be in a special emotional state improving the subjective quality of her life despite
the objective conditions of her life. However, now it is forbidden for the container woman bearing a genetically
foreign baby to love it. This may result in her painfully adaptive development during this period. One should
not ignore the humanitarian issue, namely the maintenance of the surrogate mothers state of not only physical,
but also social, psychological and spiritual well-being that will certainly affect the health of the child being
carried by her. But so far it is just a hypothesis.

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