Faculty, Staff and Student Publications
Language
English
Publication Date
11-1-2022
Journal
Maternal Child Health Journal
DOI
10.1002/rfc2.9
PMID
36387372
PMCID
PMC9648612
PubMedCentral® Posted Date
September 2023
PubMedCentral® Full Text Version
Author MSS
Abstract
This study aimed to assess the impact of the COVID-19 stress and anxiety on prenatal attachment during the second trimester of gestation. Pregnancy is an important stage for mothers-to-be in creating representations of themselves as a "mother", with the developing attachment relationship to the unborn child considered as a milestone in the future parent's developmental trajectory. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the national health measures installed can hence have consequences on these representations and on prenatal attachment. Our sample consisted of 95 mothers that were recruited from a prenatal ultrasound screening center. Results suggested that the COVID-19 pandemic significantly affected prenatal attachment (PAI) with significant correlations between PAI total score and age, anxiety (DASS) and stress (IES-R). When entered in one model looking for predictors of PAI total score, age and COVID-19 stress were the only variables found to significantly predict prenatal attachment. We argue for a cultural component in explaining these results, hypothesizing that stress could trigger defensive strategies, leading to more investment in the attachment relationship, potentially playing the role of a protective factor.
Keywords
Pregnancy, Infant, Female, Humans, Mothers, COVID-19, Pandemics, Object Attachment, Anxiety
Published Open-Access
yes
Recommended Citation
Tohme, Pia; Abi-Habib, Rudy; Nassar, Elma; et al., "The Reading Profiles of Late Elementary English Learners with and without Dyslexia" (2022). Faculty, Staff and Student Publications. 1729.
https://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/uthmed_docs/1729
Included in
Maternal and Child Health Commons, Obstetrics and Gynecology Commons, Women's Health Commons