Maternal anxiety and fetal movement patterns in late pregnancy

Abstract

Objective: To determine whether maternal anxiety affects fetal movement patterns in the third trimester of pregnancy.

Methods: The inclusion criteria were a state of good health and a singleton pregnancy between 36 and 40 weeks. Thirty healthy pregnant women were included. The Beck Anxiety Inventory (BA) questionnaire with 21 self-reported items validated for the Brazilian population was applied. The women were asked to record the number of minutes taken to perceive 10 fetal movements once a day for one week. Anxiety symptoms were rated as moderate or severe according to the BAI total score.

Results: The mean BAI score was 20.8 (SD = 10.2) and the mean time to count 10 fetal movements was 24.3 min (SD = 6.6 min). The BAI items significantly associated with moderate or severe maternal anxiety were numbness or tingling, fear of the worst happening, terrified, feeling of choking, fear of losing control and fear of dying. There was a statistically significant negative correlation between the total BAI score and the mean time of 10 perceived fetal movements (p < 0.0001; rho = −0.70; 95% CI for rho −0.84 to −0.45).

Conclusions: Maternal anxiety seems to affect fetal movement patterns in late pregnancy and is associated with the mother’s increased perception of fetal activity.

• Anxiety
• fetal behavior
• fetal movements
• maternal anxiety
• maternal perception
• pregnancy
• self-assessment
• women’s mental health

Declaration of interest

The authors declare they have no competing interests. FAPESP (Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo) supported this study through research grants included in the scholarship awarded to undergraduate student Bruna S. O. Pimenta (process No. 2013/22660–2).