Maternal-Fetal Bonding and A Previous Spontaneous Abortion

Abstract

Maternal-Fetal Bonding and a Previous Spontaneous Abortion. Sharon Sue Elkins. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the occurrence of a spontaneous abortion in a prior pregnancy and maternal-fetal bonding· in a. current pregnancy. Cranley•s Maternal;;;Fetal Attachment Sca'le and a demographic questionnaire were completed by 236 pregnant women attending either Lamaze classes or a prenatal clinic .. There was no significant difference found in maternal-fetal bonding, measured by the total score on Cranley•s Maternal-Fetal Attachment Sea 1 e, between wome·n who had experienced a spontaneous abortion .in the previous_ pregnancy and women who had not experienced· a spontaneous abortion in the previous pregnancy. However, on ·subscale (2) 11 interaction with the fetus 11 the scores of the spontaneous abortion group. were significantly lower than the scores of the lnonspontaneous abortion group. A1 s o, the spontaneous abortion group had a significantly greater variance than the nonspontaneous abortion group. No relationship was found between the number of weeks pregnant at the time of the spontaneous abortion and maternal~fetal bonding. -. Social class was found to have the greatest effect on maternal-fetal bonding of all the observed variables. Women in higher social classes had significantly higher total scores on the Maternal-Fetal Attachment Scale.

Also-, Caucasian women and younger women had significantly \higher total scores on the Maternal-Fetal Attachment Scale. Women who were the greater number of weeks pregnant also had significantly higher scores ·on two of the subscales, 11 i·nteraction with the fetus" and 11 giving of self ...