Postpartum worries: an exploration of Taiwanese primiparas who participate in the Chinese ritual of tso-yueh-tzu.
OBJECTIVE
To explore worries of postpartum mothers who participate in Tso-Yueh-Tzu.


METHODS
Primiparas (N = 21) with a mean age of 30 years, a mean educational level of 15 years. Seventeen (81%) were working. The mean number of postpartum days was 14.


METHODS
Focus groups, each group session lasted approximately 2 hours and was audiotaped.


RESULTS
Four themes regarding worries emerged: searching process to integrate the self into the rituals of Tso-Yueh-Tzu, understanding that the newborn's care influences evaluation of the self as a "good mother," decision-making process of the self to arrange the best baby care for a career women, and reconciling the need for self-fulfillment with the demand to be a "family-mother."


CONCLUSIONS
Nurses can help a mother work through her worries. Although the women expressed their worries in different content, all focused on the need for "the integration of the self" while they went through Tso-Yueh-Tzu.
Liu-Chiang
C Y
CY
Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA.
D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000451:nursing; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D006801:Humans; D016389:Maternal-Child Nursing; D008516:Medicine, Chinese Traditional; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology; D010298:Parity; D049590:Postpartum Period / Q000208:ethnology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D012649:Self Concept; D014931:Women, Working / Q000523:psychology