8 Visions Well-being in Pregnancy: A Pilot Study Using the Well-being Picture Scale Pamela J. Reis, CNM, MSN, PhD(c) Doctoral Student, East Carolina University Martha R. Alligood, PhD, RN, ANEF Professor and Director of PhD Program East Carolina University College of Nursing Abstract The purpose of this article is to report the findings of a pilot study using the Well-being Picture Scale (WPS) to appraise well-being in pregnancy among an ethnically diverse group of women. The WPS is a 10-item non-language pictorial scale based on Rogerian science that measures general well-being within the unique human-environmental field process. Since the WPS had not been used previously to measure well-being in pregnancy or in Hispanic populations, inquiry was broadly focused on how multi-cultural women would report well-being in general and whether or not well-being, as reflected by WPS mean scores, would be influenced by trimester of pregnancy. Fifty-five African American, Native American, Hispanic, and Caucasian women from three prenatal clinics in southeastern North Carolina participated in the study. Differences in WPS mean scores between the ethnic groups were not statistically significant, however a trend toward lower WPS mean scores was noted among Hispanic women and among all women with increasing gestation. The WPS was reported by all participants to be easily understood. This pilot study supports the need for further exploration of the unitary concept of well-being in diverse populations from a Rogerian science perspective. KEY WORDS: Well-being, pregnancy, Science of Unitary Human Beings, Rogers, Well-being Picture Scale. Acknowledgments I would like to thank Dr. Sarah Hall Gueldner for granting permission to use the Well-being Picture Scale for this pilot study. This study would not have been possible without funding from the East Carolina University School of Nursing Office of Research and Scholarship Small Grant Award Program for Doctoral Students. I also want to thank Dr. Martha Raile Alligood for her important direction and support in this pilot project, and for Dr. Melvin Swanson at East Carolina University School of Nursing for his guidance and expertise in the analysis of the data. Finally, sincere appreciation goes to Natasha Worthington and Carol Rose at the East Carolina University School of Nursing for their invaluable editorial and technical assistance. A paper presentation that discussed the preliminary findings of this pilot research project was given at the Society of Rogerian Science annual conference in Savannah, Georgia in October 2005. A poster presentation of the findings of this project was presented at The Southern Nursing Research Society 21st Annual Conference, February 22-24, 2007, in Galveston, Texas. Introduction Midwives celebrate pregnancy and childbirth as an important part of the human life cycle. A holistic conceptualization of pregnancy is expressed within the philosophy of the American College of Nurse- Midwives (ACNM). According to the