Mother-infant bonding during the early postnatal period in a sample of Chinese primiparous mothers

Abstract

This study aims to investigation the mother-infant bonding impairment among Chinese primiparous mothers in the early postpartum period. Totally, there were 119 primiparous mothers were conveniently recruited at the 42 days postpartum from a local hospital in Wuhan, China. Data on the social-demographic characteristics, clinical information, prenatal depressive and anxious mood, and mother-infant bonding were collected using a self-designed basic information questionnaire and the Chinese-version of Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire(C-PBQ). The results showed that the total score of C-PBQ was 14.62±10.35. The prevalence of reported mild bonding disturbances and potential rejections of infants were 21.8% and 1.68%, respectively, while no one reported explicit rejections. During pregnancy, only 5.0% of women experienced depressive mood, while 11.8% with anxiety. Although a higher score of C-PBQ was observed in women with prenatal anxiety compared to those without (P<0.05), no significant effects of anxiety during pregnancy on the mother-infant bonding was found based on the regression analysis. Therefore, close attention should be paid to mother-infant bonding impairment for Chinese new mother in the early postpartum period. Investigating methods to enhance perinatal maternal bonding and reducing anxiety in pregnancy is needed.