Perceived hassles and uplifts and their impact on perceived cognitive performance during pregnancy: A pilot study

Abstract

Context: Stress during pregnancy manifests as mood disorders and anxiety disorders. Recently, many studies have reported cognitive disturbances in pregnancy after subjective interviews as well as objective evaluation. Aims: The aim of the study was to assess pregnancy-specific distress and perceived cognitive functions in an urban sample of pregnant women. Methodology: Sixty working pregnant women, educated up to standard 12th or above, were evaluated cross-sectionally with pregnancy upscale-downscale scale and cognitive failure questionnaire. Results: Women identified events related to the infant's looks and appearances as most uplifting, whereas physical symptoms and consequences of pregnancy as most distressing. Women reported tasks involving recent and working memory to be most impaired, whereas tasks involving procedural memory, spatial memory, and long-term memory were least affected. Severity of hassles perceived by pregnant women was identified as the predictor of perceived cognitive decline in pregnancy. Conclusions: Events in a normal pregnancy can be perceived as either uplifting or distressing. Perceived distress affects the perception of one's own cognitive performance.

Keywords

• Cognition
• hassles
• pregnancy
• pregnancy-specific anxiety
• stress
• uplifts