Maternal Bonding through Pregnancy and Postnatal: Findings from an Australian Longitudinal Study

Abstract

Mother-infant bonding provides the foundation for secure attachment through the lifespan and organizes many facets of infant social-emotional development, including later parenting. To describe maternal bonding to offspring across the pregnancy and postnatal periods, and to examine a broad range of sociodemographic and psychosocial predictors of the maternal-offspring bond. Data were drawn from a sample of 372 pregnant women participating in an Australian population-based longitudinal study of postnatal health and development. Participants completed maternal bonding questionnaires at each trimester and 8 weeks postnatal. Data were collected on a range of sociodemographic and psychosocial factors. Bonding increased significantly through pregnancy, in quality and intensity. Regression analyses indicated that stronger antenatal bonding at all time points (trimesters 1 through 3) predicted stronger postnatal bonding. Older maternal age, birth mother being born in a non-English speaking country, mother not working full time, being a first-time mother, breast-feeding problems, and baby's crying behavior all predicted poorer bonding at 8 weeks postpartum. These novel findings have important implications for pregnant women and their infant offspring, and for health care professionals working in perinatal services. Importantly, interventions to strengthen maternal-fetal bonding would be beneficial during pregnancy to enhance postnatal bonding and infant health outcomes.

Mother–Infant and Partner–Infant Emotional Availability at 12 Months of Age: Findings From an Australian Longitudinal Study

“…Research has shown associations between bonding measured at different time-points in the perinatal period: Prenatal bonding has been associated with postnatal bonding (Rossen et al, 2016(Rossen et al, , 2017 while bonding was shown to be associated at 4 weeks, 4 months, and 8 months postnatal (Condon & Corkindale, 1998). While EA has been studied extensively in relation to attachment (Altenhofen, Clyman, Little, Baker, & Biringen, 2013;Altenhofen, Sutherland, & Biringen, 2010), including the Strange Situation protocol (Aviezer, Sagi, Joels, & Ziv, 1999;Aviezer, Sagi-Schwartz, & Koren-Karie, 2003;Biringen et al, 2005;Carter, Garrity-Rokous, Chazan-Cohen, Little, & Briggs-Gowan, 2001;Easterbrooks et al, 2000;Ziv, Aviezer, Gini, Sagi, & Koren-Karie, 2000), the relationship of early self-reported bonding (8 weeks postnatal) and EA at 12-months has yet to be examined.…”

Risk and protective factors for pre‐ and postnatal bonding

“…More extensive and consistent knowledge of the risk and protective factors in the bonding process between mother and child from the prenatal to the postnatal phase will provide valuable information for midwives and other healthcare providers to enable them to identify mothers and children who could be susceptible to bonding problems. It is assumed that the development of the mother–child bond starts in pregnancy (Alhusen, ), increases during gestation, and remains stable or becomes stronger after birth (Cuijlits et al., ; de Cock et al, ; Rossen et al., ). The developmental changes in bonding complicate the formulation of a fixed definition of bonding from the prenatal to the postnatal phase.…”

“…Regarding demographic factors, contradictory results have been found for age and educational level in relation to pre‐ and postnatal bonding. Some studies have found older maternal age to be negatively related to pre‐ and postnatal bonding (Camarneiro & de Miranda Justo, ; de Cock et al., ; Dubber et al., ; Lindgren, ; Rossen et al., ). However, reviews have concluded that age had little influence on prenatal bonding (Pisoni et al., ; Yarcheski et al., ).…”

Cannabis use by women during pregnancy does not influence infant DNA methylation of the dopamine receptor DRD4

“…Families were recruited through general public and specialist drug and alcohol antenatal services at major hospitals in New South Wales and Western Australia (25). Mother–infant dyads with major medical complications were excluded.…”