Marital Satisfaction and Marital Coping Style adopted by Working and Non-working Pregnant Women attending Antenatal Outpatient Department in Sikkim

Abstract

Background & Aim: Being healthy in the period of pregnancy is crucial for women in the workplace. So it is important to pay attention to the safety and health of working pregnant women there. Marital satisfaction is one of the main characteristics of psychological health and one of the factors which can affect it, is occupation. The aim of this study was to compare marital satisfaction and marital coping style between working and non-working pregnant women. Material & Method: This is a descriptive comparative study with a sample size of 240 working and non-working pregnant women selected through purposive sampling technique and attending antenatal outpatient departments of government and private hospitals. Data were collected through Enrich marital satisfaction scale and Bowman marital coping inventory. Results: The marital satisfaction for working pregnant women was 165.1317.49 (government hospital) and 173.03 whereas for non-working it was 164.3815.91 and 169.7613 in government and private hospitals and the difference between the two groups was not statistically significant (p > 0.05). Statistically significant differences were noted among the working and non-working pregnant women in terms of adopting coping style in the government hospital (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Results of this study show that working had positive effects on marital satisfaction and the decline in marital satisfaction of pregnant non-working women is due to low educational qualification of self and spouse and low family monthly income. Thus, marital counselling, as an important part of prenatal care, would be an effective step to enhance the mental health of pregnant women, and is hence recommended.