| Description |
The relationship between rooming-in hospital procedures, conventional hospital procedures, and maternal attitudinal test scores was investigated in 100 primiparous women, 43 rooming-in subjects and 57 conventional subjects. Three hospital settings were utilized: Cottonwood Hospital, Saint Mark's Hospital, and Hill Air Force Base Hospital. The hypotheses proposed were: 1) For primiparas, there no correlations between rooming-in procedures and maternal attitudinal test scores; and, 2) for primiparas, there were no correlations between conventional procedures and maternal attitudinal test scores. A 74 multiple-choice test was constricted for this study. The items on the test focused on maternal attitudes towards the experiences of pregnancy, labor, delivery, postpartum period and infant care. Forty-three items achieved correlations with total test scores of .2980 or above. Reliability of the test was computed at .8781, suggesting that is was a reliable test. On the third day postpartum the test was administered to the subjects in the hospital. Correlations were computed and the two hypotheses were rejected (p ? .05), suggesting that rooming-in subjects tended to have higher test scores. Other independent variables were found to correlate significantly with the maternal attitudinal test. The variables were: educational level and history of pregnancy (p ? .05); martial status, analgesia during labor, and anesthesia during labor and delivery ( p ? .05); attendance at prenatal classes and presence of father during labor and delivery (p ? .001). In order to determine the best predictors of scores on the maternal attitudinal test, a regression equation was computed. The most significant finding was that the variable of the presence of the father during labor and delivery attributed for .30414 of the variance of the predication of the test ( this means that 30.414% of test scores can be predicted by this variable). This finding suggested that the supportive system of the father during labor and delivery played an important role in the establishment of positive maternal attitudes. Identifying supportive systems have an influence in the establishment of positive maternal attitudes should proved a fruitful area for investigation in the future. |
