The interaction of personality profile and lactation differs between mothers of late preterm and term neonates

Abstract

Late preterm birth, a rapidly growing segment of premature deliveries, has the potential to cause deleterious effects on women's psycho-emotional experience of labor and the establishment of successful lactation. We compared personality traits by the Lüscher Color Test, the mother-to-infant bonding attitudes by the Mother-to-Infant Bonding Scale (MIBS) and lactation outcome, between mothers of late preterm and at term infants. Our results indicated that mothers idealize their condition and wish to enjoy this magic and extraordinary time in spite of feeling stressed. However, late preterm mothers feel too sad and distressed to relax in their own space after the premature birth event. In addition, their total MIBS score (mean ± SD) was significantly higher (1.364 versus 0.581; p 0.026), as related subscales: Dislike (p 0.005) and Disappointed (p 0.012). Finally, they significantly reduced breastfeeding rates from discharge (p < 0.0001), to the first (p < 0.001), the third (p = 0.002) and sixth postnatal month (p = 0.0002). We concluded that there is a relation between unconscious deep stress along with bonding limits of late preterm new mothers and impaired breastfeeding initiation and duration.

Feeding Difficulties in Late Preterm Infants and Their Impact on Maternal Mental Health and the Mother–Infant Relationship: A Literature Review

“…Numerous authors [20,22,[27][28][29][30] have claimed that feeding difficulties impair the mother's mental health and the emotional bond between the mother-infant dyad, resulting in anxiety, stress, and depression. Maternal stress may be responsible for several hormonal changes, which may result in decreased milk supply and, on the other hand, impaired maternal behavior, a barrier to successful breastfeeding [27,28,33,34].…”

“…Both the maternal psychological discomfort and the immature behavior of late preterm infants could hinder the interaction of the dyad, thus favoring a conflictual approach during feeding [28,[41][42][43]. Salvatori et al [42] showed that preterm dyads had fewer positive interactions during feeding times at 18 and 24 months than term dyads; moreover, preterm infants had increased food refusal behaviors from 18 months to 24 months.…”

“…Moreover, the psychological distress experienced by late preterm mothers was the most significant independent risk factor for early cessation of breastfeeding. In a following case-control study, the authors [28] compared the maternal personality profile and attitudes towards lactation between 30 late preterm mothers and 60 full-term mothers. They reported that late preterm mothers experienced deep stress according to the Luscher Color Test general interpretation.…”

“…Zanardo et al [28] aimed to compare the mother-to-infant bonding attitude among 30 mothers of late preterm infants and 60 mothers of full-term infants by administering the Mother-to-Infant Bonding Scale. The authors found that mothers of late preterm infants had significantly lower bonding as indicated by the scoring of dislike and disappointment.…”