Chapter 14: Adaptation at the Postnatal Period and the Valuation of Parental Roles

Both medical and social sciences have been fascinated by the individual peculiarities and the conforming processes concerning childbirth. Medical sciences see a woman mostly from the aspect of physiology and childbirth. Social sciences, on the other hand, view a woman as someone playing a parental role due to the influence of the social environment. Childbirth is a physiological and a psychoemotional event, which has a much more significant effect than just the moment in question.

Birth has been seen as potentially empowering, possibly traumatic, and in many instances, life-transforming. How women feel about themselves in reference to their potential or actual birth experience also has implications for their health and well-being as they adapt to the new demands of parenting and motherhood (Mercer, 1995; Simkin, 1992).