"I Just Don't Know": An Exploration of Women's Ambivalence about a New Pregnancy

We sought to examine how ambivalence manifests in women's lives after confirmation of a new pregnancy by exploring women's feelings, attitudes, and experiences regarding pregnancy intentions, the news itself, and related pregnancy decision making.

We recruited women aged 15 to 44 and at less than 24 completed weeks of gestational age from urban, walk-in pregnancy testing clinics in New Haven, Connecticut, from June 2014 to June 2015. We obtained quantitative and qualitative data via an enrollment survey and face-to-face, semistructured interviews, respectively. Transcripts were analyzed using framework analysis.

The sample included 84 women. Participants had a mean age of 26 years and were on average 7 weeks estimated gestational age at enrollment. Most identified as Black (54%) or Hispanic (20%), were unmarried (92%), and had at least one other child (67%). More than one-half (55%) described feelings of ambivalence regarding their current pregnancy. We identified ambivalence as a frequent and complex thread that represented distinct but overlapping perspectives about pregnancy: ambivalent pregnancy intentions, ambivalent response to new diagnosis of pregnancy, and ambivalence as uncertainty or conflict over pregnancy decision-making. Sources of ambivalence included relationship status, pregnancy timing, and maternal or fetal health problems.

This study improves on previous findings that focus only on ambivalence related to pregnancy intention or to decision making, and explores women's mixed, fluctuating, or unresolved feelings and attitudes about pregnancy before many participants had completed pregnancy decision making. Acknowledging and exploring sources of ambivalence regarding pregnancy may help health providers and policymakers to comprehensively support women with respect to both their experiences and reproductive goals.