Maternal perinatal representations and their associations with mother–infant interaction and attachment: A longitudinal comparison of Portuguese and Brazilian dyads

Abstract

Prior research in Western countries (mostly the US, Canada and northern Europe) indicates that mothers' representations are associated with mother–infant interaction quality and their child's attachment security later in the first year. Fewer studies, however, have evaluated whether these associations hold for mother–infant dyads in other countries, such as Brazil and Portugal. Although these countries share a similar language and culture, they differ on societal dimensions that may affect parenting attitudes and mother–infant relationships, such as economic stress, social organisation, social policy, and the availability of services for young families. In this longitudinal study, we followed two independent samples of Brazilian and Portuguese mother–infant dyads from the perinatal period to 12 months post‐partum. We assessed mothers' perinatal representations using semi‐structured interviews in the first 48 hours after the infant's birth, and evaluated the associations of these representations with mother interaction quality at 9 months and infant attachment at 12 months. Results were similar in each country, corroborating prior research in single Western countries: Mothers with more positive perinatal representations were more sensitive to their infants during free play at 9 months and were more likely to have infants classified as securely attached at 12 months.

Maternal pre and perinatal experiences with their full-term, preterm and very preterm newborns

“…Interviews were audiorecorded and transcribed verbatim for qualitative analysis. The temporal window of 72 h to conduct the maternal interview was decided because: (1) it was intended to evaluate the maternal experiences in the immediate postpartum period, which is generally defined as the period between the first 48 and 96 h of postpartum hospital stay [49]; (2) in Portugal the postpartum hospitalization varies between 48 h in the case of vaginal delivery and 72 h in the case of cesarean section; and (3) this interview had been previously piloted within this time period [50].…”

“…The maternal interview, followed the procedures of a previously established protocol [50], and was used to collect mothers' pre-and perinatal experiences in the first 72 h after infants' birth, in the following 5 themes and 7 subthemes that resulted from a content analysis combining both grounded-theory and a hypothetical-deductive method: (1) pregnancy (planned pregnancy -planned/unexpected; pregnancy acceptance, e.g., father's reaction to pregnancy announcement; other family members reaction; support received, e.g., family support, social support, and medical services); (2) reaction to early birth and prematurity (worries, fears, expectations and affectional emotions); (3) maternal experience and relationship with the newborn child (feeling love for the baby for the first time; feelings about the first separation); (4) baby's temperament (real baby versus idealized baby); and (5) future perspectives (expectations and self-reflection about the ability to care of the baby and to engage with him/her; expecting difficulties in the future). The interviews were audio-recorded and lasted approximately 1 h. The validity of the interview was tested and confirmed in past research (see the interview guide in Appendix 2) [50].…”

“…Interview guide This was pilot tested in a previous study [50]. The interview protocol is available as additional file in Appendix 2.…”

“…The coding tree used for initial assignment into the 5 major themes, that had already been used in a previous study [50], is described in the methods.…”

“…The maternal interview followed the procedures of a previously established protocol [50], to collect mothers' preand perinatal experiences in the first 72 h after infants' birth.…”