Prenatal attachment, depression and dyadic adjustment in couples expecting a baby

Abstract

Pregnancy is a period that entails many changes in the woman’s life, man and consequently in the couple’s life. Previous studies have shown that parents’ attachment to the baby develops in gesta8onal period and correlates with prenatal depression and quality of marital adjustment. They also proved to have an impact on transi8on to parenthood and overall emo8onal involvement between the triad. With this study, we aim compare pre-natal attachment and marital adjustment perception between future mothers and fathers in the 27-40 weeks of pregnancy, and the effect of the marital relationship on attachment. We also address mothers’ gesta8onal depression to control its effect. Aier allowing inform consent, 110 Portuguese couples aged between 18 and 50 years, completed the Portuguese versions of DAS-Dyadic Adjustment Scale (Spanier, 1976), EPDS-Edinburgh Depression Scale (Cox, et al., 1987), MAAS-Maternal Antenatal A9achment Scale and PAAS-Paternal Antenatal A9achment Scale (Condon, 1993). Results shown that woman, compared to men, present a higher level of prenatal a9achment to their baby, s8ll in the womb. For both, dyadic adjustment, namely cohesion, correlates significantly to prenatal attachment. Linear regressions conducted per gender, reinforced the impact of the couples’ cohesion on the emo8onal bond developed with the unborn baby. Woman didn’t present significant depression symptoms. Although prenatal depression scores have no rela8on to prenatal a9achment, they correlate with the Dyadic Adjustment (cohesion and sa8sfac8on). These results follow previous findings and highlight the importance of including both men and woman, expec8ng parents in studying the transi8on to parenthood. Also, we argue that marital family subsystem has a close impact on the future parental subsystem, and on the adaptation and transition to the next challenging milestone on the family life cycle - parenthood.