Level of mother-baby bonding and influencing factors during pregnancy and postpartum period

Abstract

Background: Bonding is the process of an emotional relationship between mothers and babies. Pregnancy and postpartum periods are most important of developing a mother–child bonding. Here we aimed to determine the level of mother-baby bonding and identify the influencing factors during pregnancy and the postpartum period and to examine the relationship between bonding level during pregnancy and the postpartum period. Subjects and methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study included twelve districts across a range of socioeconomic structures. Every district was selected by a simple random sampling method. Data were collected with Prenatal Attachment Inventory, Mother-to-Infant Bonding Scale, Center for Epidemiologic Studies’ Depression Scale and Beck Anxiety Inventory. The study included two home visits. The first visit at gestational age ≥35 weeks and second visit on the seventh or eighth day of the postpartum period. The study was conducted with 227 pregnant women. Results: We found that, 50.7% pregnant women had prenatal depression and 36.6% pregnant women had postpartum depression. We detected a negative association between depression level during pregnancy and the postpartum period with mother-baby bonding in the postpartum period (r=0.174, p=0.009; and r=0.221, p=0.001, respectively). A negative correlation was detected between anxiety level and mother-baby bonding level in the postpartum period (r=0.151, p=0.023). It was found that when the prenatal attachment level increases, the level of postpartum bonding is also increases (r=0.297, p=0.000). Conclusions: Depression and anxiety levels were higher during pregnancy than the postpartum period. Depression level during pregnancy and postpartum period depression and anxiety level negatively affected mother-baby bonding in the postpartum period. We found that as prenatal attachment level increases, the level of postpartum bonding also increases.