Abstract

Background: Prenatal attachment is an emotional bond between parents and their unborn child during pregnancy. The current study aimed to evaluate factors affecting prenatal attachment during pregnancy in order to make recommendations on nursing support provided for pregnant women in terms of attachment.

Material and Method: The universe of this descriptive and cross-sectional study consisted of pregnant women who received follow-up care from January 2015 to May 2015 at the Women’s and Children’s Research and Training Hospital located at the Anatolian site of Istanbul. A total of 303 pregnant women who met the inclusion criteria and who agreed to voluntarily participate in the study were recruited. Data was collected using a questionnaire form inquiring demographic, personal, and pregnancy-related characteristics and the Prenatal Attachment Inventory. For statistical analysis, percentiles and means were calculated and the Kolmogorov Smirnov, the Mann Whitney U, and the Kruskal-Wallis tests were conducted.

Results: Among the participants, 43.2% were primipara and 56.8% were multipara. Primiparas had significantly higher prenatal attachment scores than multiparas (p<0.001). Primiparas who were aged between 18-34 years, were married for 1 to 9 years, were high school graduates, were employed, had a nuclear family, and had no chronic disease had significantly higher prenatal attachment scores than multiparas (p<0.005). In terms of obstetric features, primiparas who had planned and natural pregnancies, had no pregnancy-related complications, did not consider terminating pregnancy, and planned to give natural birth had significantly higher prenatal attachment scores than multiparas (p<0.005).

Conclusion and recommendations: Mother-fetus attachment begins in the prenatal period. Primiparas had higher prenatal attachment compared to multiparas and attachment was found to be affected by sociodemographic and obstetric factors. According to this, it can be recommended for nurses and midwives to closely monitor multiparas in terms of prenatal attachment.