Posttraumatic stress symptoms following childbirth and mothers' perceptions of their infants

Abstract

Postpartum psychological distress can adversely affect the early mother-infant relationship; however, this has not been investigated in relation to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following childbirth. This article explores whether PTSD symptoms relating to labor and delivery are associated with mothers' early perceptions of their infant. Using labor and childbirth as the stressor criterion, 211 women were assessed at 6 weeks' postpartum for symptoms of intrusions, avoidance, and hyperarousal. Their perceptions of their infants, of mother-to-infant attachment, and infant behavioral characteristics also were evaluated. In sum, 3.8% of the women fulfilled full diagnostic criteria, and a further 21.3% reported clinically significant symptoms on at least one dimension of PTSD. Those meeting full or partial criteria perceived their attachment relationships to be significantly less optimal and reported more negative maternal representations in terms of their infants being less warm and more invasive. They also rated them as being temperamentally more difficult, prone to distress, and less easy to soothe. However, when the effects of depression were partialled, only the effect for perceived warmth remained. Posttraumatic stress symptoms relating to labor and delivery may adversely influence maternal perceptions of infants, with potentially adverse implications for the developing mother-infant relationship. The overlap with depressive symptoms requires further exploration.

Infant face interest is associated with voice information and maternal psychological health

“…Although maternal psychological health in the present study was within a normal range for a community sample (see, Condon & Corkindale, 1998;Crawford, Henry, Crombie & Taylor, 2001;Davies et al, 2008;Jones et al, 2013;Tennant et al, 2007), maternal mood was negatively correlated with perceived mother-infant attachment (see also Davies et al, 2008). This correlation suggests that perceived mother-infant attachment might be a more appropriate measure of the mother-infant relationship than maternal perceptions of their infant's warmth and invasiveness used by Jones et al, (2013).…”

“…Moreover, the mother-infant relationship is affected by maternal symptoms of PTSD (Davies, Slade, Wright & Stewart, 2008;McDonald, Slade, Spiby & Iles, 2011) and PND (Edhborg, Lundh, Seimyr & Widstorm, 2001;Murray, 1992;Murray, Fiori-Cowley, Hooper & Cooper, 1996;Taylor, Atkins, Kumar, Adams & Glover, 2005). Thus, it is important to consider the role of a variety of maternal emotional responses, in relation to infant face interest, within general community samples.…”

A prospective study of the parent–baby bond in men and women 15 months after birth

“…However, some argue that this association may be due to negative parental perceptions rather than a true objective judgement of the child's character (Pauli-Pott, Mertesacker, Bade, Haverkock, & Beckmann, 2003). Davies, Slade, Wright and Stewart (2008) similarly found that mothers with PTSD following childbirth perceived their baby's temperament as more difficult accompanied by more negative maternal representations and less optimal mother-infant relationship. Similar to other areas of research, studies have focused on mothers only, with limited research into the association between father's mental health and perceptions of their infant's temperament, and the parent-baby relationship.…”

Construct Validity of the Childbirth Trauma Index for Adolescents

“…For adolescents, the total scale demonstrates an internal reliability of 0.60 to 0.90 with events other than childbirth. Previous use of the IES exploring childbirth trauma among adults (Creedy, 1999;Davies, Slade, Wright, & Stewart, 2008) has noted reliabilities between .80 and .90 (Creedy, 1999). Reliability for this sample of adolescents was established at .82.…”