Investigation of the Prenatal Attachment Levels of Pregnant With Depressive Symptoms

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the attachment level of pregnant women with depressive symptoms to their prenatal period baby. Material and Methods: Research has been done in descriptive type. The universe of research was composed of pregnant women who applied to Sivas Kangal Family Health Center and Kangal State Hospital between April 10 and July 10, 2017. In the sampling, 150 pregnant women who met the criteria were included. Personal Information Form, Beck Depression Inventory and Prenatal Attachment Inventory were used to collect the data of the study. The data were collected by face to face interview method. The analysis of the data was made with the SPSS (Version: 22.0) program. In statistical analysis, the significance level was accepted as p<0.05. Results: According to the data analysis results; Pregnant women are 27,02 years old on average and are married for 6,41 years, 41,4% are primary school graduates, 73,3% are housewives, 82,7% have middle-level income. The average gravida of pregnant women is 2,44 and 35,3% of them are their first pregnancy. Average gestation period is 27,76 weeks. When the BDI cut-off score was accepted as 17, the prevalence of depression in pregnant women was found to be 35,3%. The mean BDE score was determined to be 15.48 ± 10.12 (min 0-max 46). Generally, mild depression symptoms (32,6%) were found in pregnant women, while 11,3% had severe depression symptoms. The attachment levels of the pregnant women are above the average with 56.85 ± 12.64 (min 28-max 82) points. The relationship between Beck Depression Inventory and Prenatal Attachment Inventory was analyzed and a statistically negative correlation and a significant correlation was found (p <0.05). Conclusion:As a result of the research, it was seen that prenatal attachment decreased as the severity of depressive symptoms of pregnant women increased. For this reason, pregnant women with depressive symptoms or diagnosed with depression in the prenatal period should be identified, if necessary, the affected pregnant woman should be planned individual training with her husband, practices should be made to improve and protect her mental health, and thus contribution should be made to increase mother-baby attachment.