From pregnancy to 3 months after birth:the beginning of mother-infant relationship from a maternal perspective

ABSTRACT

Background

An early positive mother-child relationship is a central factor in the development of a psychologically balanced personality. The study aims to identify risk and protective factors for the development of a balanced maternal-infant postnatal attachment. We explored the association between maternal-infant attachment and prenatal and postnatal variables potentially implicated in the development of this early bond: maternal-foetal prenatal attachment, social support, memories of parental care, romantic attachment, dyadic adjustment, parity, breastfeeding, planning pregnancy, woman’s and infant’s age, and difficulty of delivery.

Methods

123 pregnant women participated in the longitudinal study; they were assessed on the MAAS, PBI, ECR-R, MSPSS (t1: pregnancy), MPAS (t2: 3-months postnatally), DAS , and CES-D (t1, t2).

Results

Four significant predictors of maternal-infant postnatal attachment (MPAS) emerged: maternal-foetal prenatal attachment (β = 0.379, p < .001), anxiety in the romantic relationships (β=−0.237, p=0.019), prenatal and postnatal dyadic adjustment (t1, β=−0.323, p=0.025 ;t2, β=0.329, p=0.014) in the couple’s relationship. These variables explained 20.2% of variance in mother-infant attachment (R²adjusted=0.202).

Discussion

The study highlights associations of maternal-infant postnatal attachment with prenatal and postnatal relational variables and with other variables related to the woman’s reproductive and pregnancy history. Clinical attention to these factors could help protect the well-being of mother and child

KEYWORDS:

• Maternal-infant postnatal attachment
• maternal-foetal prenatal attachment
• pregnancy
• motherhood
• perinatal period

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the women who so generously gave their time to complete this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).