The interaction of personality profile and lactation differs between mothers of late preterm and term neonates

Abstract

Late preterm birth, a rapidly growing segment of premature deliveries, has the potential to cause deleterious effects on women’s psycho-emotional experience of labor and the establishment of successful lactation. We compared personality traits by the Lüscher Color Test, the mother-to-infant bonding attitudes by the Mother-to-Infant Bonding Scale (MIBS) and lactation outcome, between mothers of late preterm and at term infants. Our results indicated that mothers idealize their condition and wish to enjoy this magic and extraordinary time in spite of feeling stressed. However, late preterm mothers feel too sad and distressed to relax in their own space after the premature birth event. In addition, their total MIBS score (mean ± SD) was significantly higher (1.364 versus 0.581; p 0.026), as related subscales: Dislike (p 0.005) and Disappointed (p 0.012). Finally, they significantly reduced breastfeeding rates from discharge (p < 0.0001), to the first (p < 0.001), the third (p = 0.002) and sixth postnatal month (p = 0.0002). We concluded that there is a relation between unconscious deep stress along with bonding limits of late preterm new mothers and impaired breastfeeding initiation and duration.

Keywords:

• Breastfeeding
• late preterm delivery
• personality profile

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest.