Clinical approaches in the assessment of childbearing fatigue.

Modifications of the Fatigue Symptoms Checklist can be used clinically to assess fatigue during the childbearing year. Data from a series of studies provide beginning norms that can be used to interpret clinical scores and point to the potential importance of assessments to pregnancy complications and maternal performance. Consistent with North American Nursing Diagnosis Association (NANDA) definition of fatigue and the theory of unpleasant symptoms, fatigue and performance are important phenomena critical to the experience of pregnancy and assumption of the maternal role.