Faculty Mentor

Ezra Holston

Department (e.g. History, Chemistry, Finance, etc.)

Nursing

College (e.g. College of Engineering, College of Arts & Sciences, Haslam College of Business, etc.)

Nursing

Year

2015

Abstract

There has been a rapid increase in the number of unmarried couples that participate in the same family practices as their married counterparts such as having children and cohabiting in the same residence. Unmarried cohabiting mothers are at a higher risk of smoking, experiencing symptoms of depression and having more stressful pregnancies than married cohabiting mothers. These conditions place the neonates of unmarried cohabiting mothers at an increased risk for low birth weight, low Apgar scores and low gestational age. Such findings suggest that these unmarried cohabiting mothers and their neonates are not receiving the proper support required during pregnancy. Perhaps the effect of being in a legally sanctioned union such as marriage has a health promotional effect on maternal reproductive health behaviors and neonatal health factors. Failure to recognize and/or understand this effect can possibly contribute to adverse health effects. Therefore, the purpose of this presentation is to lay the foundations of a proposed project that will explore the perceptions of unmarried and married cohabiting mothers about maternal reproductive health behaviors and the effect of these perceptions upon neonatal health factors. This information will be instrumental in promoting appropriate antenatal care practices for healthy pregnancies and neonatal health factors.

Included in

Nursing Commons

Share

COinS
 

Married and Unmarried Cohabitation Impact on Maternal Reproductive Behaviors and Neonatal Health Factors

There has been a rapid increase in the number of unmarried couples that participate in the same family practices as their married counterparts such as having children and cohabiting in the same residence. Unmarried cohabiting mothers are at a higher risk of smoking, experiencing symptoms of depression and having more stressful pregnancies than married cohabiting mothers. These conditions place the neonates of unmarried cohabiting mothers at an increased risk for low birth weight, low Apgar scores and low gestational age. Such findings suggest that these unmarried cohabiting mothers and their neonates are not receiving the proper support required during pregnancy. Perhaps the effect of being in a legally sanctioned union such as marriage has a health promotional effect on maternal reproductive health behaviors and neonatal health factors. Failure to recognize and/or understand this effect can possibly contribute to adverse health effects. Therefore, the purpose of this presentation is to lay the foundations of a proposed project that will explore the perceptions of unmarried and married cohabiting mothers about maternal reproductive health behaviors and the effect of these perceptions upon neonatal health factors. This information will be instrumental in promoting appropriate antenatal care practices for healthy pregnancies and neonatal health factors.

 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.