The Effect of Training Attachment Behaviors on Maternal-Fetal Attachment in Primipara Mothers Visiting Selected Obstetric-Clinics of Shiraz City -2010

Maternal-foetal attachment (MFA) is a term which describes the emotional relationship between a pregnant woman and her foetus.MFA is the most beautiful and amazing phenomena occurs long time before birth which causes a pleasurable relation between mother and her fetus after childbirth. The present study was conducted to determine the effect of training attachment behaviors on maternal-foetal attachment in primipara mothers. In this clinical trial, 84 primipara women were selected from two hospitals in Shiraz (Shoshtary and Hafez) in 2010. The participants were randomly allocated to the “experiment” and “control” groups. Data were collected from personal information and prenatal forms, and the maternal-fetal attachment questionnaire. Besides the usual pregnancy cares, the “experiment group” received four two-hour sessions of training course on attachment behavior in a month (once a week) and attachment behavior recording-forms were given to them every week. However, “control group” only received the routine prenatal care. Maternal-fetal attachment was measured before and after intervention in two groups. Data were analyzed using statistical tests such as Chi-square, T-test, and paired t-test. Before intervention, the mean score of MFA were respectively 60.8 ± 4.6 and 60.2 ±4.5 in experiment and control groups that showed no significant difference between the study groups (p=0/544). After intervention the scores changed into (64.1 ± 5.1 and 61.1 ± 5.1) respectively which significantly differed between the study groups (p<0.0001). Results indicated that training attachment behaviors increases the maternal-fetal attachment. So, simple tasks such as palpation of the belly cause more emotional relationship between mother and her fetus during pregnancy.