A framework for the study of childbearing fatigue.

Accounts of fatigue in childbearing women are identified in clinical reports, maternity textbooks, and studies. However, limited conceptual clarification or empiric research directed at mothers' fatigue during childbearing has been undertaken. To better understand fatigue, factors in the childbearing woman's life that are thought to predispose her to fatigue were identified; also delineated were the potential effects of fatigue on maternal performance. The framework that emerged, representing insights from childbearing and fatigue literature, is designed to serve as a guide to research that will add to understanding of childbearing fatigue and how it can be prevented or ameliorated.