In order to develop an electromagnetic wave-shielding maternity dress that can help with the childbirth health enhancement of aged mothers, this study executed questionnaires on maternity dress against expectant mothers of 35~44 years of age or women with the experience of a childbirth at a higher age (35~44 years of age) within the last year residing in Busan/Gyeongnam area. Also, based on the body size of women of 35~44 years of age from the result of the Korean human body size survey (Size Korea), an electromagnetic wave-shielding maternity dress for aged mothers was developed. For the produced test dress, a fitting evaluation for the appearance and action functionality satisfaction was executed against the wearer group, and the study results are as follows.
First, only 35.2% of aged mothers wore specialized maternity dresses during the pregnancy period, and 64.8% of aged mothers responded that they wore normal clothing as maternity dresses due to reasons such as economic burden or absence of necessity of maternity dress during the pregnancy period. 44.4% of the survey respondents continued to work on the job during the pregnancy period, and regarding the daily hours for use of electronic devices, over 95% of respondents stated that they used electronic devices for over an hour a day even during the pregnancy period. Also, only 1.9% of aged mothers responded that they have experienced wearing electromagnetic wave-shielding maternity dresses.
Second, in order to develop electromagnetic wave-shielding maternity dress for aged mothers, as the result of examining the body size of women of 35~44 years of age based the 7th Korean human body size survey (Size Korea), it was found that there were variances of +3cm in chest circumference, +3.7cm in waist circumference, +3.5cm in waist circumference (omphalion), +0.6cm in hip circumference, +0.3cm in pelvis circumference, +0.9cm in neck base circumference, and +0.5cm in wrist circumference.
Third, the test dress was designed as a one-piece based on the result of the questionnaire and precedent study, and developed into three shapes of separated/attached/detachable according to the attachment type of the shielding fiber. As for the separated maternity dress, the electromagnetic wave-shielding fiber is applied to the innerwear and separated from the outerwear, and it has the advantage of free applicability to other maternity dresses. As for the integrated type, the shielding fiber is fixed and attached to the inside of the outer fabric by utilizing the washable characteristics of the shielding fiber. Finally, as for the detachable type, the electromagnetic wave-shielding fiber is detachably attached to the inside of the outer fabric, and it has the advantage of free detachability of the electromagnetic wave-shielding fiber for washing.
Fourth, the developed maternity dress was evaluated for the appearance and action functionality satisfaction against the wearer group. As the result of the appearance evaluation, the attachment type or method of the shielding fiber showed relatively high satisfaction level of 4.50 or higher. The action functionality evaluation also showed high satisfaction level of 4.50 or higher overall, but for the separated/detachable maternity dress, the evaluation was relatively low at 4.13 (separated) and 3.75 (detachable) as the room for the bust girth was insufficient so that there was not enough room for arm movements.