Phenomenology of mothers marital identity changes after the birth of the first child from the perspective of their spouse

The purpose of this study was to study the marital identity changes in women after the birth of the first child from their spousechr('39')s point of view. To achieve this goal, a qualitative approach and a descriptive phenomenological method were used. The research community is Fathers living in Tehran that at least one year and at most seven years passed from the birth of their first child. Purposeful sampling was used and 12 persons were selected as the participants. Data were collected through researcher-made semi-structured interviews and analyzed by content analysis method. Finally, the research findings led to 13 sub-themes and 3 main themes. The main themes are Role changes (Decreased emotional support, Increase emotional support, Reduce instrumental support, Increase instrumental support, Reduce intelligence support), Rule changes (Child orientation, Communication with family and friends, expand expectations from a spouse, Increase attention to family) and Internal changes (Personal growth, Behavioral and personality traits, Internal tensions, Attitude, and worldview ). The results showed that a group of participants consider the identity Changes of their wives after childbirth Positive and another group considers them negative. It seems that the quality of marital relations before childbirth, Main family support, husband participation in parental responsibilities, and household Affairs are the influential factors in the formation of cohesive identity of mothers in the transition to parental phase.