[Difficulties facing spouses of in-patients undergoing tocolysis]

When a pregnant woman needs tocolysis to preempt the need for an abortion, there are great impacts on the daily life of her family and on the relationships between the couple and their family members, which negatively influence the balance of the family system. For a pregnant woman under tocolysis in hospital, the spouse indeed plays an important supportive role in helping her to endure many difficulties. Because men are always controllers of power and opinion, being strong and active in attitude to everything, male spouses always suppress their emotions and do not express their feelings to others. These characteristics of men, either in Eastern or Western countries, always cause nursing staff to realize the needs of the male spouse poorly during tocolysis. The current concept of nursing emphasizes family-centered nursing, so the patient's family members are also recipients of treatment, especially male spouses during the process of tocolysis. This is usually neglected, however. In this paper, the author analyzes the characteristics and the roles of male spouses in the family, and the difficulties faced by a pregnant woman during tocolysis in hospital, for the benefit of future clinical nursing practice.