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Background Millions of people worldwide have been diagnosed with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19), which has impacted maternal mental health and mother–infant relationships during the postpartum period. Objectives To explore how mothers' anxious and depressive symptoms, parenting stress, mindful parenting, and mother–infant bonding vary as a function of the moment of the baby's birth (pre‐COVID‐19 or post‐COVID‐19) and to examine the contribution of those variables to mother–infant bonding. Methods The sample was recruited online and comprises 567 mothers (18–46 years) with an infant aged between 0 and 12 months old. Results Approximately 27.5% of the mothers presented clinically significant levels of anxious and depressive symptoms. Mothers who gave birth during the COVID‐19 pandemic presented lower levels of Emotional Awareness of the Child and a more impaired mother–infant bonding than mothers who gave birth before the pandemic started. Approximately 49% of the mother–infant bonding variance was explained by parenting stress and by several dimensions of mindful parenting. Conclusion Our findings provide important insights into the impact of COVID‐19 on maternal mental health and parenting.

The current COVID‐19 pandemic is a challenging time for postpartum mothers, and associated challenges may have a negative impact on their parenting and, consequently, on mother–infant bonding. This study aimed to longitudinally explore whether mothers’ self‐compassion was associated with mother–infant bonding and whether this relationship was mediated by mindful parenting and parenting stress. A total of 125 Portuguese mothers of infants aged between 0 and 12 months completed an online survey at two assessment points during the first wave of the COVID‐19 pandemic (T1: April–May 2020; T2: June–July 2020). The survey included several questionnaires assessing sociodemographic, clinical, and COVID‐19 information; self‐compassion; mindful parenting; parenting stress; and mother–infant bonding. Mothers presented significantly higher levels of self‐compassion, less impaired mother–infant bonding, and lower levels of depressive symptoms at T2 than T1. Higher levels of self‐compassion at T1 predicted less impaired mother–infant bonding at T2, and this relationship was mediated by higher levels of mindful parenting and lower levels of parenting stress (both assessed at T1). These results highlight the relevance of mothers’ self‐compassion to establishing mother–infant bonding in the postpartum period, particularly during the COVID‐19 pandemic, and the important role of mindful parenting and parenting stress in determining this relationship.

Objectives This study aims to examine postpartum Portuguese mothers' emotional experiences, help-seeking behaviours, and perceived barriers to seeking help. It also intends to analyze mothers' knowledge and acceptability of mindful parenting interventions and their preferences concerning the characteristics of these interventions. Differences between mothers with positive and negative screenings for depression were explored for all variables. Methods Participants were recruited online and answered several questions aimed at assessing their emotional experience, helpseeking behaviours, perceived barriers to seeking help, knowledge about mindful parenting, acceptability of parenting and mindful parenting interventions during the postpartum period, and preferences concerning those interventions. They also completed the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. The sample comprises 599 mothers with a child aged 0-12 months (Mage = 5.28 months). Results Approximately 36% of mothers screened positively for depressive symptoms, and 24.2% thought about seeking help or actually sought help. Structural barriers were the most cited reasons for not seeking help. Approximately 95% of mothers felt that participating in a mindful parenting intervention during the postpartum period would be useful. Concerning mothers' preferences, most mothers preferred a weekly frequency (85.0%) and an average of 10 sessions (48.6%) of 45-60 min in length (52.6%). Learning how to better understand the baby's emotions and behaviours and learning new tools to better cope with parenting stress were among the intervention contents considered most useful. Conclusions Our findings support postpartum mothers' acceptability of mindful parenting interventions and provide important insights concerning specific features to consider and content to include in those interventions.

The present study aims to explore the factor structure and psychometric properties of an adapted version of the Portuguese version of the Interpersonal Mindfulness in Parenting Scale for parents of infants aged 0 to 12 months (the IM-P-I). Two studies were conducted. The first study included 560 postpartum mothers and examined the factor structure and internal consistency of the IM-P-I. The second study included 295 postpartum mothers, with the goal of cross-validating the factor structure of the questionnaire and examining its internal consistency and construct validity. In both studies, the original correlated five-factor model (which included the subscales Listening with Full Attention, Emotional Awareness of the Child, Compassion for the Child, Self-Regulation in Parenting, and Nonjudgmental Acceptance of Parental Functioning) was the best-fitting model. Adequate Cronbach’s alpha values were found for the total scale and for all subscales, except for the Emotional Awareness of the Child subscale. Moderate to strong negative correlations were found between the IM-P-I subscales and anxious and depressive symptomatology and emotional dysregulation. This study shows that the IM-P-I is a psychometrically adequate measure of mindful parenting in the postpartum period.