INFORMATION ON MASTER’S THESIS

1. Full name: Tran Thi Phuong Thao 2. Sex: Female 3. Date of birth: May 29, 1983 4. Place of birth: Tam Quan – Tam Dao– Vinh Phuc 5. Admission decision number: 2551/2007/QD-XHNV-KH&SDH dated November 2, 2007 by the Principal of University of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU, Hanoi 6. Changes in academic process: Student of Faculty of Psychology - University of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU Hanoi 7. Official thesis title: Mother's feelings in her first delivery 8. Major: Psychology 9. Code: 603180 10. Supervisors: PhD. Truong Khanh Ha – Vice Dean of Faculty of Psychology, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU Hanoi 11. Summary of the findings of the thesis: a. On theoretical aspect, the thesis has provided basic concepts of feelings which show clearly psychological changes in a mother’s feeling in her first delivery. Some causes affecting the mother’s feelings are also found out, including: her husband’s care during her pregnancy, physical features of the baby’s body, relationship between mother-in- law and daughter-in-law, her husband’s care and sharing in parenting, etc. b. On practical aspect, a number of problems occur during the mother’s first delivery We have learnt feelings of the mother in her first delivery in some specific situations such as, the first time to receive the baby; when the baby is sick or has anorexia; When seeing first steps of the baby’s growth for the first time (as the baby knows how to roll over, crawl, walk, etc.); when the mother and the baby play together, when the mother feels tired or stressful due to her work; changes in the relationship with her mother-in-law; changes in the relationship with her husband after giving birth, etc. In each case, the mother has very different feelings and experiences basic human emotions such as, sadness, happiness, anxiousness, stress, or tiredness. When falling into negative feelings, not all mothers feel easy to overcome them, even such feelings dominate their daily life and thinking. Of course, these feelings will affect the atmosphere of her family in general and affect the comprehensive development of the baby, especially its emotion. We have found out the specific results as follows: - When mothers receive their baby from the doctor for the first time, hold the baby in their warm arms, or see their “little angel” in person, they can’t help feeling extremely moved which is hard to say in words. They are emotional experiences and wonderful moments that the mothers have never experienced in their life. In particular, such feelings become more wonderful to the mothers who have many difficulties in this delivery. - In most cases, sickness of the baby makes the mother most worried and distressed. This is the greatest concern of the mothers because they always expect their baby to be healthy. A healthy baby will be mothers’ joy and happiness. When the baby gets sick, the mothers cannot avoid worry and sadness as their love for the baby is boundless. Then, how do they overcome such feelings? Most mothers are calm and confident to give thoughtful care to their baby child in many different ways so that their baby can get better soon. They take their baby to see the doctor, ask experienced people for experience, learn information on mass media, or seek advice from their friends and surrounding people. However, some mothers who fall into this case have become too stressful when their baby is sick. They do not know what to do and completely rely on others or relatives to look after their baby because they become confused and do not know how to handle the case. - There are changes in the relationship between the mothers and their husband in two trends: the husband-wife relationship becomes closer and they become happier or they become more estranged and cooler than before. The study result indicates that in most cases, after the first baby is born, the conflicts and tensions between the wife and husband are two times higher than the previous time whether they are happier. - There are changes and in the relationship between the mothers and their mother-in-law, and more conflicts occur during this time. This is mainly due to disagreements in parenting the baby. Some conflicts are easy to be resolved, but some make their relationship become quite stressful. The mothers always expect their mother-in-law to understand, share work with them, and respect them more. In general, in their first delivery, the mothers feel surprised, have psychological changes, such as sudden happiness or sadness, or sometimes become easy to sad and moved. Sometimes, they become more patient, angry, thoughtful, or irritated for no reason. However, there is one thing that is shared by most mothers is that after giving the first baby, they love and respect their parents more. They pervade the love and great services of their parents. Only when we have baby, we know the parents’ heart.