*Social Adjustment

This study examined the activities of pregnant women and how these activities facilitated a positive adjustment to pregnancy and early parenting. Subjects were 49 expectant first-time mothers ranging in age from 20 to 41 and attending a childhood preparation class. Eighty-two percent of the women were married. Subjects completed two questionnaires measuring prenatal activities and attitudes toward pregnancy and motherhood during their twenty-first to thirty-eighth week of pregnancy. Three to six weeks following the birth of their babies, the new mothers completed two questionnaires which assessed their affective reactions to their babies and the satisfaction they received from engaging in activities with their babies. Analysis of findings indicated that engaging in preparatory activities, such as nursery planning and obtaining items for the baby, facilitated a positive attitude toward pregnancy and further, that these activities were important predictors of women's positive adjustment to early parenting. Postnata