Description
Transformative Relationships
Parenthood counts among one of the most valued educational opportunities. The transition to parenting is complex and multifaceted, such as pre-birth determinants and the stability of the marriage aw well as parent characteristics (Heinicke, 2002).
Parenthood and Committed Relationships
The committed relationship of a couple acts as the foundation for their family-of-creation. The first year of marriage is devoted to establish trust and intimacy. However, once a couple brings home an infant, the parents need to restructure and organize their relationship. The new baby can bring positive and challenging reactions. The new parents feel overwhelming responsibility, even fear, to keep their infant safe and healthy.
Couples who have a strong and secure relationship and mutually support each other before the birth of the baby can anticipate better outcomes.
Researchers who study the effects of parenthood on marital satisfaction have consistently reported that rather than improving a couple’s relationship, the presence of a children is initially associated with decreasing marital satisfaction (Belsky & Rovine, 1990; Bouchard, 2016; Johnson, 2016).
The quality of marital satisfaction begins to decline following the birth of he first child. The dissatisfaction continues until children reach middle childhood. The quality improves as the children go through adolescence toward early adulthood.
Union Instability and Union Disruption
Couples who are exposed to union instability and union disruptions can cause problems to their children. According to the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, researchers found out that parent and offspring relationship is disrupted due to union instability and union disruption. Parent discord was also significant factor, in that strife between parents and children, which can effect the next generation in terms of their own parenting outcomes (Amato & Patteron, 2016).
Economic Factors
The transition to parenthood (TTP) challenges the parents emotionally, physically, and financially. Couples considering parenthood examine the financial implications of having children. It has been estimated that for a middle-class working family in the United States, about one fourth of the total lifetime income is devoted to meeting the costs of of raising child from birth through age 18 (Lino, 2014). A child who is born in 2013, middle-income family, is expected to spend almost $250,000.00 on child related expenses.
Psychosocial factors contribute to the decision of becoming a parent. In the past, the reason of having children was the need for familiar workforce. There are many personal reasons to why people want to have children, such as family of origin values, social class, ethnic groups, religion, and cultural traditions.
Parenting, sometimes, is viewed as a second change at life. Some parents may try to relive their own childhood through their children, while others hope that their children will do better in life than they did themselves.
Role Strain
By adding a child to a family, the system becomes more complex. The parents feel that they are pulled to too many directions, which can lead to role strain. Role strain occurs when adults attempt to succeed at several competing social roles, such as breadwinner, home manager, parent, and marriage partner. Couples do well to develop a strong and committed relationship before having children, because their relationship will suffer some neglect while they are raising a new child (Doss & Rhoades, 2017).
Family of Creation
Family of creation, “family of procreation,” and “family of making” can be used interchangeably to signal the union of individuals with the intent of creating a family, typically sharing a household. In the contemporary society, the diversity of family forms reflect numerous variations in family formation (Cherlin, 2012; Jojie et al., 2012).
Family of procreation refers to the creation of a family unit by two or more persons. The goals of the family of creation are to provide physical and emotional shelter to the member of that family.
Nuclear Family
The family of creation is ween in the light of being a nuclear family, multigenerational factors of stress as well as resilience occur in the larger system which will affect the family form (Gerhardt, 2016b). Examples of nuclear family, such as parental dyad consisting of the couple who takes on the major responsibilities heading the household.
Planning for a Family
The best practice, ideally, is a visit to a gynecologist or health care provider at least 3 months prior to conception. This practice promotes successful pregnancy and addresses current medical issues (American Pregnancy Association, 2017).
Genetic Counseling
Genetic carrier screening, which is a DNA test, can provide more detailed information. Couples with known risks may opt for in vitro fertilization where preimplantation screening can reduce the possibility of passing on certain debilitating medical conditions.
Preparing for Conception
The prospective and mothers should adopt healthier lifestyle. For example, fathers should stop using recreational drugs, such as marijuana, cocaine, cigarettes, alcohol, radiation, and pesticides (Sharma, Biedenharn, Fedor, & Agarwal, 2013).
Prospective parents who have addictions and related disorders should undergo rehabilitation before considering pregnancy, because a child could suffer severely from parental abuse engendered by poor lifesty le choices.
Maternal Health
The nutrition and health of a pregnant woman influence the quality of development of the growing fetus (Bhutta et al., 2013; Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, 2016). A number of drugs and other chemical agents are know as teratogens. These agents or chemical can cause the abnormal development of an embryo.
Several infectious diseases, including STDs, can be transmitted from mother to the fetus, which can damage the central nervous system during the fetal stage of development. For example, herpes virus and toxoplasmosis.
ChildBirth Education
A childbirth educator or a labor support companion, doula, emotionally care for the mother and her partner while she is in labor, sometimes after delivery (Mayo Clinic, 2017b). Doulas also coach the father on how to be supportive. Women who have the support of a doula or childbirth educator are reported to cope more effectively with the responsibilities of being a new mother (www.dona.org).
Emotional Aspects
Postpartum depression: An estimated 15 percent of women suffer from significant depression, perinatal mood, and anxiety disorders. These can occur regardless of age, income, race, or ethnicity (Postpartum Support International, n.d.). Postpartum depression is a type of clinical depression that includes feelings of not wanting to provide care for the infant, severe mood swings, continual fatigue, lack of joy in life, and/or withdrawal from relationships (O’Hara & McCabe, 2013). It is treatable with antidepressant medications in combination with psychotherapy and family support.
Postpartum psychosis, on the other hand, is a serious psychiatric condition, where the person looses contact with reality. delusions and hallucinations can occur, and some mothers with this condition have harmed or even killed their children.
Pregnancy and Infant Loss
Miscarriage, also known as spontaneous abortion, where the pregnancy spontaneously ends within the first 20 weeks of gestation.
Rainbow Babies, a term is used to describe a healthy baby born after a previous miscarriage or loss of an infant.
Alternative Avenues to Parenthood
There are many different approaches and technologies of having children:
Fertility drugs
Intrauterine insemination (IUI)
In Vitro Fertilization/Embryo Transfer(IVF-ET)
IVF combined with intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI)
Gamete intrafallopian transfer (GIFT)
Zygote intrafallopian transfer (ZIFT)
Donor ovum and/ or donor sperm and donor embryos provide genetic material
Traditional gestational surrogacy
Gestational surrogacy (no genetic connection with the carrier)
Three-parent offspring where the maternal mitochondria come from the third party (Fogleman, Santana, bishop, Miller, & Capco, 2016).
Parenting and Adoption
When biological parenting is not happening, couples decide to adopt. The reasons for choosing to become adoptive parents may vary. Some couples due to genetic illnesses decide to adopt. Some couples want to add to their family by adoption. Same-sex couples may decide to grow a family through adoption, rather than go through costly assisted reproductive options (Duncan, 2016a).
Second-Parent Adoption and Kinship Adoption
When a stepparent legally adopts the biological children of the spouse, or a grandparents may adopt grandchildren to ensure their well-being. Kinship adoption is a common variety, and usually servers to keep families united, and there is the consideration of “the best interests of the child.”
Transracial adoption (interracial adoption), which is the placement of a child from one racial or ethnic group, with parents of another racial or ethnic group.
International Adoption (intercountry adoptions), these types of adoptions are considered risky and difficult, because transitional welfare practices are not universal (Chen, 2016). The adopted child’s health history may be inaccurate or falsified, where the child may need extensive health care and medical needs. These adoptions are very expensive.
Reactive Attachment Disorder is characterized by “withdrawn behavior and restricted positive affect
Forster Parenting
Foster parents are individuals who raise or offer a temporary home to children. Prospective foster parents may be single or married, come from all social backgrounds, undergo foster care and parenting training, have no criminal record or history of child maltreatment, and have an income. the latter reduces the risk of fostering for the wrong reasons. Fostering is temporary, in contrast to adoption which is a permanent and legally binding ccommitment.
