Physiological and Psychological Changes in Pregnancy

Introduction

Pregnancy comes with some of the physiological and psychological changes of the woman and also sometimes to her partner.  Most of the physiological changes usually occur gradually but at the end of o all, they affect the body of the woman.  These changes are aimed at nurturing the fetus and preparing the mother for delivery. The psychological changes occur in order to provide a response to the various physiological alterations in the body. This means that the two changes are related to each other. This research will elaborate more about the physiological and psychological changes of women during pregnancy. This is a case study of some psychological and physiological changes of pregnant mothers in public health centers.

Psychological Changes

In the public hospitals, Physiological changes usually cause the psychological changes in the body. Influences caused by socialization are some of the psychological changes caused by the pregnancy. These issues make the pregnant mothers have different behaviors and social choices. The use of public healthcare bathing centers has intensified among the pregnant women in the society and that is because of the influence of psychological changes. These changes are caused by the risks existing in pregnancy in most of the mothers.

Cultural influences can also cause the psychological changes in the pregnant mothers. Culture is a major influence on the perceptions of the pregnant women (Newman B. and Newman P., 2017). Each culture has its own rule and that makes the pregnant women get influenced by the various beliefs of the specific culture. The women’s roles in the public healthcare centers are affected by culture and that makes certain beliefs and taboos affect her behaviors.

Psychological changes can also occur as a result of family influences. Most of the family members may take the pregnancy issues to be positive and others negative. This can create pain and suffering in most of the mothers. In the public health care centers, there are stories of pain and endless suffering among the mothers while in labor and that can cause psychological changes to the mothers.

The individual issues can bring psychological changes to the pregnant mothers. The personal ability of an individual to cope up with stress is one of the psychological issues affecting the pregnant mothers (Buss, 2015). The mothers should be able to secure their relationships through handling stress and also they have to avoid the various issues taking away freedom from them. Pregnancy usually is not an easy task to handle. For new mothers to be, body changes that occur during that time may result in depression and frequent stress issues. Mood swings always take the better part of a pregnant woman and this may interfere with her social life.

Physiological Changes in Pregnancy

Majorly, the physiological changes in pregnancy include the changes in the endocrine system and the changes in the physical body of women. The endocrine changes induce the hormonal changes in women and this can lead to a change of attitude. These hormonal changes are important in the maintenance of pregnancy in most mothers.

There are also changes in the reproductive system as a result of pregnancy in most mothers. The uterus usually enlarges during this process and also growth occurs which is usually stimulated by various hormones in the body. The cervix of the woman becomes very soft as well as short during this process. The ovary, vagina and the breasts are the other reproductive systems which change as a result of the hormonal changes in the women. In essence, the breasts become fuller and tender. The nipples darken while pigmentation occurs on the areola. Due to less blood flow to the legs, they tend to become swollen and this can be eased by elevating the legs to ensure that blood flow is aided and reaches the legs. Increased weight gain, tension in the muscles and need of the body to maintain its stability can also result to back pain and this can be discomforting to the woman.

The cardiovascular system, respiratory and the renal systems also change as a result of pregnancy in women. For the cardiovascular systems, the placental circulation needs a lot of blood and therefore, the cardiovascular system changes (Moya et al., 2014). The thoracic circumference increases as a result of respiratory changes. This makes the inspiration and expiration rate to increase too. The pressure in the bladder increases as a result of earlier periods of pregnancy and also the later periods of pregnancies in the renal changes effects. This results to frequent urination which may be a disturbing issue to the woman in terms of sleepless nights and infections.