Prevalence and predictors of “nesting”: Solutions to adaptive challenges faced during pregnancy
Section snippets
Prevalence and predictors of “nesting”: solutions to adaptive challenges faced during pregnancy
Pregnancy has historically posed significant challenges to expectant mothers and their developing offspring. Consequently, evolution has equipped women with a range of adaptations that help them face those challenges. Some of those adaptations involve physiological processes, such as increasing levels of progesterone across gestation and onset of lactation, which prepare women's bodies and those of their offspring for childbirth. Other adaptations, however, may involve psychological changes
Participants and procedure
We recruited a community sample of women who were currently pregnant (n = 91), as well as a sample of control (non-pregnant) women (n = 102) matched for age. Women were recruited via flyers, Facebook advertising, a local OB/GYN clinic, and via email through another ongoing investigation of married couples. To be eligible for participation as part of the pregnant sample, women had to report being pregnant (pregnancy status was not medically verified). If not pregnant, women were eligible if they
Results
See Table 1 for descriptive statistics and correlations among all study variables.
Discussion
The present study replicated and extended previous work suggesting that, in the time leading up to childbirth, women engage in a form of nesting. Although the nesting behavior of other species has been well-documented, ours is among the first empirical investigations of nesting in humans. The current work provides evidence that women may indeed engage in nesting during the prepartum period. Findings provide insight into adaptive psychological processes that might facilitate childbirth and early
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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