PSYC 3480 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Postpartum Depression, Progestin, Fetus
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I(cid:374) this (cid:272)hapte(cid:396), (cid:455)ou"ll see (cid:373)a(cid:374)(cid:455) e(cid:454)a(cid:373)ples of the(cid:373)e (cid:1008), that (cid:449)o(cid:373)e(cid:374) (cid:448)a(cid:396)(cid:455) (cid:449)idel(cid:455) f(cid:396)o(cid:373) o(cid:374)e a(cid:374)othe(cid:396). Still, the topic of pregnancy is almost invisible in north american psychology journals. Furthermore, these articles almost always focus on topics such as teen pregnancy, unwanted pregnancy, and drug abuse during pregnancy. In contrast, psychologists tend to ignore the pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood 319 experiences of women who are happy to be pregnant and are looking forward to being mothers. The biology of pregnancy: in a typical pregnancy, the egg and the sperm unite while the egg is traveling down a fallopian tube. The fertilized egg continues along the fallopian tube and then floats around in the uterus. When it is about six days old, it may implant itself in the thick tissue that lines the uterus (pobojewski, 2008). If a fertilized egg does not implant itself, then this tissue is sloughed off as menstrual flow.
