Body image in pregnancy and its relations to psychological well-being and pregnancy acceptance.

Problem and objective. Body image and its changes during pregnancy are more widely researched in science community, but as observed there is a lack of researches in which would be investigated the significance of psychological well-being and particularly pregnancy acceptance to body image of pregnant women. Objective is to investigate the body image peculiarities of pregnant women and its relations to psychological well-being and pregnancy acceptance. Participants. Participants were 203 pregnant women, pregnancy duration varied from 7 to 40 weeks. Age of women varied from 18 to 43 years (mean was 29,76, SD=4,80). Methods. Participants were questioned in LUHS hospital Kaunas clinics, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Woman consultation and in Public organization Pasvalys primary person's health care centre, Polyclinic. Anonymous questionnaire contains 4 main parts: 1) questions related to socio-demographic characteristics; 2) The Body Image in Pregnancy Scale; 3) The Pregnancy Acceptance Scale and additional questions related to how significant others accepted the pregnancy of women; 4) Pregnancy Experience Scale (BRIEF) and Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. The data of research was analyzed using quantitative analysis. Results. During the evaluation of the body image it was estimated that the dissatisfaction with strength-related aspects of one’s body was greater in participants, who had high education (p=0,004), disturbance of sexual attractiveness and prioritization of appearance over function was greater in participants, who had lower education (p=0,016 and p<0,001), were unmarried (p=0,011 and p=0,004), lived in a village (p=0,021 and p=0,010) and had lower income (p=0,002 and p=0,006). Women, who were unmarried, lived in a village and were pregnant in the 3rd trimester more frequently and intensively experienced negative aspects of pregnancy, although women who were married and lived in a city more frequently and intensively experienced positive aspects of pregnancy. Low depressiveness was in 83,7 percent (N=170) of participants, high – in 16,3 percent (N=33). Higher depressiveness was in participants, who had lower education (p=0,013) and lived in a village (p