Abstract
Many different personality types were represented in this study as has been described by various observers.
The major factor motivating the sexual behaviour of these women was the overwhelming importance to them of maintaining the dependent relationship upon a male with a total and blind acquiescence to his wishes. Of lesser importance were acting out against parents, a strong sexual drive, the need to prove oneself a woman and a desire, conscious or unconscious, to have a baby. Much guilt was aroused by the use of or insistence on birth control measures; these implied responsibility for sexual activity, the use of such measures was precluded. Contrary to other reports, nausea, vomiting and obstetrical complications occurred with the same frequency as in married women. The course of the pregnancy did not appear to be affected in any way.
It was concluded that a weak ego structure was more basic to their behaviour than the unconscious drive to have a baby, or the acting out of unconscious fantasies which often have been assumed in the previous literature. The results suggest that the mild nausea and vomiting of pregnancy is of physiological rather than psychological origin, and that the course of pregnancy is not as readily affected by unhealthy motivation for having the baby as has often been assumed.