Maternal-fetal attachment in pregnancy subsequent to perinatal death

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine hypothesized differences -in ma~~~nal-fetal' ·attachment:.' }jetween -multigravida·· women who had experienced -perinatal death and multigravida women who ha:cf not-. A convenience· sample of 107 women. ~ttending a clinic at·a_ large Southeas~er1;1·health ce_nter ·pa,~tJcipated in th,e _ study. -Fifty-.twcf _of -these had '.. \ ;_ .-· experience? p_er~_natal :: qeath. s,ub_j ects' completed Cranley' s (1981) Maternal-Fetal Attachment Scale and a demographic questionnaire. _ Date was analyzed using descriptive statistics,· t-tests, ANOVA, and MANOVA. Mothers who.had become pregn~nt ·1ess than six months from the time of 16ss scored significantly higher on subscale one, "Di-fferentiation from Self" than did other women-with loss and women who had not experienced a loss. This group also scored significantly· higher than the no loss group on the total scoreo .Although not significant, this group ·aiso had higher mean scores on_ all other subscales. No differences were found by race, socioeconomic sta~us-, education, marital status, number of pregnancies or risk factor.