A Description of Pregnant Women’s Perceptions and Abstract Drawings of Being Pregnant

This article explores the use of visual language as a means of examining and
communicating the subjective experience of pregnancy. The participants, eleven women in their final trimester
of pregnancy, were asked to complete five abstract drawings accompanied by verbal descriptions of their own
perceptions and feelings. Using specialized concept cards developed by Rhyne (1979), participants were
invited to consider four distinctive “mind states” or feeling states – sadness, anger, fear and joy. An additional
card designed specifically for this study explored the broader physical and emotional experiences of ‘being
pregnant’. In order to understand the personal meanings of the responses and validate the researcher’s
interpretations, a personal interview was conducted with each participant. The majority of drawings for being
pregnant were drawn with curvilinear lines and the images for the abstract drawings were graphlike lines,
abstract lines and figure shapes. The drawings aided the participants in expressing feelings and gaining a new
awareness of their pregnant bodies. While participants responded differently to the positive and negative
aspects of being pregnant, and came with different life situations they all reported “joy” to be the essential
underlying emotion that was most similar to being pregnant. KEY WORDS: Images, feelings, pregnancy,
expectant women, third trimester.