Drawing of pregnancy: contributions about the development of the pregnant woman?s body image

Abstract

Scientific literature underlines the pregnant woman's body image as an important variable for psychological organization during pregnancy. Projective drawings enable the assessement to body image. However, studies using drawings of pregnancy (DP) are missing in recent literature. The aim of this paper is to assess differences of the evolution of body image between the second and the third trimesters using DP and also to observe relationships between DP and sociodemographic and clinical factors. Participants were pregnant women (202 at the second and 159 at the third trimesters) while waiting for sonograms. After filling a Sociodemographic and Clinical Questionnaire, participants were asked to draw themselfs as pregnant. Data of the DP at the second trimester were submitted to a principal components analysis, yelding four factors: F1-General Representation of the Imaginary Baby (α = 0.966), F2-Representation of the Maternal Image (α = 0.888), F3-Detailed Representation of the Imaginary Baby (α = 0.846) and F4-Recognition of Pregnancy (α = 0.588). Between the two moments, only F2 presented a significant difference while F1 and F4 did not. Opposed to predictions, F3 did not presented significant changes. Significant correlations were observed between data of DP and clinical variables as parity, spontaneous abortions, total of abortions and the beginning of maternal perception about fetal movements. In a healthy population, DP seem to be specifically sensitive to changes in maternal image representation. Once that the representation of the imaginary baby and the recognition of pregnancy do not present significant changes, this reinforces the theory about the psychological development during pregnancy.