Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology最新文献

Objective: Management of Differences of Sex Development (DSD) is complex and in resource limited settings the psychosexual and psychosocial aspects of DSD care have received limited attention. This review aims to explore recent literature on psychosocial care of DSD in low and upper middle-income countries (L/UMIC).

Materials and methods: Scientific databases were searched and papers on management of DSD were reviewed according to predefined inclusion criteria.

Results: Papers published between January 2010 and July 2024 were screened for eligibility. Seventy studies specifically focusing on psychosexual and psychosocial aspects were identified. In these papers, the following aspects were studied in detail: gender identity, sexual behaviour, quality of life, perception of parents and society, communication and family counselling and socio-cultural and religious aspects.

Conclusions: The geographical distribution and volume of studies on the psychosexual and psychosocial aspects of DSD in L/UMIC are mostly originating from East-and South-Asia and South & Central America. The findings underscore the need for integrated and culturally sensitive interventions to support the psychosocial well-being of patients and their families affected by DSD within resource-limited contexts. We highly recommend providing specific guidelines recognising the socio-cultural milieu and resource restricted settings. International collaboration providing education and training should be encouraged.

Background: The prevalence of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is rapidly increasing. It is associated with adverse physical and mental health outcomes for women and their babies. Mother-infant bonding is important for maternal health and infant development, but the effect of GDM on mother-infant bonding has not been examined.

Objective: To explore and describe the impact of GDM on perceived mother infant-bonding in the antenatal and postnatal period.

Methods: Qualitative, individual, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 33 women from diverse backgrounds with current or previous GDM. Data were analysed using reflexive inductive thematic analysis.

Results: Three main themes were generated from the analysis: 1) Concern for baby's health and its impact on bonding; 2) GDM management, the pregnancy experience, and bonding; 3) Continuity and discontinuity of the impact on bonding between the antenatal and postnatal periods.

Conclusion: It was found that GDM can have both positive and negative impacts on perceived mother-infant bonding, which appear to change over the course of the perinatal period. Further observational research is needed to assist in understanding the impact of GDM on mother-infant bonding and the potential mediating effect of mental disorders, including depression.

Objective: The current study compares the development of negative and positive emotionality of irritable and nonirritable neonates.

Background: Research indicates that the first few months of life are marked by decreases in negative emotionality and increases in positive emotionality.

Methods: The Neonatal Behavioural Assessment Scale (NBAS) was administered twice to 111 neonates at 3 and 4 weeks of age to select a sample of irritable neonates and a comparison group of nonirritable neonates. Mothers completed assessments of negative and positive emotionality at 1, 2, 4, and 9 months of age.

Results: Both irritable and nonirritable neonates demonstrate a significant decrease in frustration and a significant increase in positive emotionality from 2 to 4 months of age. Irritable neonates also demonstrate a significant decrease in negative emotionality from 4 to 9 months of age. Both irritable and nonirritable neonates demonstrate considerable stability in negative and positive emotionality.

Conclusion: Implications of these results for parent education and early intervention are discussed.

Background: Pregnancy is considered a complex period in a woman's life due to the changes that occur at different levels, which increase her vulnerability to developing psychological symptoms. A woman's temperament and perceived social support may play important roles in the development of such symptomatology. The main objective of the present work was to evaluate whether social support is an effective coping resource against the development of symptoms of depression and anxiety, especially among women with certain personality types, while also considering previous prenatal losses.

Methods: The participants were 534 pregnant women in their 26th week of gestation. They completed measures related to social support, temperament (i.e. neuroticism and extraversion) and symptoms of depression and anxiety and informed us of any previous prenatal losses.

Results: The association between social support and depression was negative only for women who scored high on neuroticism. Extraversion did not interact with social support to predict depression or anxiety. Additionally, temperament interacted with previous prenatal losses, playing a relevant role in the development of anxiety symptoms. Previous losses had a greater effect on women who scored low in extraversion or high in neuroticism. Finally, a triple interaction between temperament, social support and previous prenatal loss emerged, indicating that previous prenatal loss was related to anxiety in women with low social support and low extraversion.

Conclusion: Pregnant women, especially those who have suffered a previous prenatal loss and score high in neuroticism or low in extraversion, may benefit from interventions that enhance social support.

Aims/background: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the health of women in the perinatal period has been widely shown in literature. Although longitudinal quantitative studies investigated the long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on both women and children's health, no longitudinal qualitative study can be found within literature. The study aimed at an in-depth exploration of the longitudinal trajectories, from pregnancy to postpartum, lived by women through the waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy.

Design/methods: As a method, the qualitative approach of Longitudinal Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used. A total of 14 women were interviewed for the first time during pregnancy (March-May 2021/second wave of the COVID-19 spread). Among the total, 8 completed a second interview, one year later, during postpartum (March-May 2022/end of the COVID-19 public emergency) and were included in the analysis.

Results: Three superordinated themes emerged: (1) Maternal functions during the COVID-19 pandemic; (2) 'Care' needs of women in maternal services; (3) Unspeakable: obstetric violence and gender inequality in the working field. Themes were organised considering women's experience, showing continuity and discontinuity paths overtime.

Conclusion: Women in their perinatal period during the COVID-19 pandemic felt like 'living incubators', both isolated and invested in individual and social responsibilities of 'caring'.The study confirms the need to re-centre maternal care services' praxis on women's needs as an act of collective repair against the consequences of collective trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: Mother-infant bonding refers to emotional, cognitive, neurobiological, and behavioural ties between mother and infant. It is a process that develops from pregnancy throughout infancy. Rejection sensitivity could be one of the risk factors for impaired bonding, and it is defined as a personality disposition that is characterised by an anxious expectation of rejection in social situations. It is known that rejection sensitivity is a predictor of problems in relationships, but its association with difficulties in mother-infant bonding is still unknown.

Design: This was a three-wave online longitudinal study.

Methods: In this study, 1052 women participated in the second trimester of pregnancy (T1), 879 of them participated during the third trimester (T2), and 758 of them in the postpartum period (T3; 6-21 weeks). Women completed the Adult Rejection Sensitivity Questionnaire, Prenatal Attachment Inventory, Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire, and Sociodemographic and obstetric data. Mother-infant bonding had three dimensions: Impaired bonding, Anxiety about care and maternal distress, and Lack of enjoyment and affection with the baby.

Results: The path analysis was conducted where rejection sensitivity (T1) was the predictor, mother-foetal bonding (T2) mediator, and mother-infant bonding (T3) criterium while parity, education level, and place of living were covariates. Higher rejection sensitivity predicted impaired dimensions of mother-infant bonding in the postpartum directly and indirectly via lower mother-foetal bonding during pregnancy.

Conclusion: Women with high rejection sensitivity are at risk for impaired bonding in the peripartum period. Those women should be identified during pregnancy, and special attention should be given to prevent bonding difficulties.

Background: Most studies on emotions in the perinatal period have focused on psychopathology, identifying groups of women with distinct symptom trajectories, but research on typical, normative changes in emotions across the perinatal period is scarce. This study examines typical patterns of emotions in low-risk, healthy perinatal population.

Methods: A prospective longitudinal study with 151 participants who completed emotion-related questionnaires (Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, Perceived Stress Scale, Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory) six times during pregnancy and twice in the postpartum. Linear mixed effect models were used to test whether maternal emotions underwent significant changes across the perinatal period and whether those changes are affected by child sex and parity. Nonlinear temporal trends were fitted by natural cubic splines.

Results: For all emotions, we observed significant nonlinear changes across the perinatal period. Negative affect and anxiety decreased and positive affect increased significantly from the first to the third trimester. Depressive symptoms showed a U-shaped pattern and perceived stress remained unchanged during pregnancy. Negative affect and anxiety increased significantly from the third trimester to the first postpartum week. After stratifying for parity, the increase in negative emotions with approaching childbirth occurred only in primiparae.

Conclusion: Low-risk pregnancy and the early postpartum period are associated with emotional changes which differ depending on parity. Health care providers should inform pregnant women about those common changes to help them develop realistic expectations and enhance their ability to cope with the demands of pregnancy and the early postpartum period.

Introduction: Over time, surrogacy has become more broadly available to a variety of people (e.g. male same-sex couples or transgender women). Whether the wider public supports surrogacy, and what contributes to such support remains unclear. This study investigated what demographic and surrogacy arrangement-based (which people participate in the arrangement) factors shape attitudes towards surrogacy.

Method: A representative sample of Dutch adults (N = 1,074) reported their attitudes on four (out of 30) randomly assigned vignettes in 2023. Each vignette described a surrogacy family with variations in sexuality and gender of parents, the social and genetic bonds between the parents, the surrogate, and the oocyte donor, and was followed by an attitude questionnaire (6 items). Multilevel regression analyses were conducted with attitudes as the dependent variable and demographic factors (gender, Dutch background, age, education, sexual orientation, urbanisation, and religiosity) and arrangement-based factors (parental composition, genetic and social bonds with the surrogate, and oocyte donors).

Results: Participants held fairly positive attitudes towards surrogacy. People identifying as women, with only having a Dutch background, who were younger, more highly educated, non-heterosexual, or less religious were more likely to have positive attitudes. Participants had more positive attitudes if surrogacy arrangements entailed cis-man cis-woman parents compared to cis-man cis-man or transgender parents, and when there was no social bond between parents and oocyte donor.

Conclusions: Attitudes are influenced by both demographic and arrangement-based factors. Based on these findings, families can be informed of fairly positive reactions they might encounter from their environment.

Background: Postpartum depression (PPD) can result in poor health outcomes in mothers, affect maternal-child bonding and have long-term effects on child development.

Aims: The aim of this review was to identify existing studies on PPD and characterise any gaps in literature.

Methods: We conducted a scoping review of 14 databases using a combination of search terms and phrases related to PPD and the respective Southern Asian countries. We applied the criteria from the PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews to identify relevant articles from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka published between January 2004 and September 2024.

Results: We identified 20 studies conducted in only four of the South Asian countries: Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Nepal. Fifteen were studies with clear post-intervention outcomes; five had process outcomes. Intervention studies used trained community health workers in a variety of psychosocial programs, many with culturally specific content, including adoption of language and integration of local activities. Among the 15 intervention studies, six had positive maternal mental health outcomes and three had positive pediatric-related findings.

Conclusion: The 20 articles identified address the important problem of PPD in South Asia. The positive findings in both the large randomised control trials and small pilot studies identified in this article, combined with the studies' use of the resource of community health workers, suggest that the gap in the literature is less on identifying effective interventions and more on securing the political and policy resolution to address the problem of PPD.

Background: There is an increase in the variation of family forms, types of parenthood roles and methods for family formation. One way of family building has most recently been referred to as 'elective co-parenting'. Yet, many other terms and somewhat diverging concept definitions have been put forward. This paper aims to establish a fundamental conceptual framework.

Methods: We will adhere to a tailored set of guidelines for conceptual ethics organised in four stages: (i) Using a minimal scoping review of published definitions potential attributes are identified, (ii) The potential attributes are organised by theme in order to identify any necessary and sufficient or shared ones, (iii) A conceptual definition of the concept is developed, (iv) The most fitting concept label is determined.

Results: Current terminology lacks comprehensiveness and often contains additional (hidden) meanings, thereby jeopardising its usability for research on contemporary family formation. We suggest a new nomenclature.

Conclusion: We suggest PACT (Pre-conception Agreement-based Co-parenting Together-apart) instead of 'elective co-parenting' (or equivalents) as a new concept label for this particular family type, whereby at least two parties of co-parents have agreed before the conception of a child to share parenting of this child. A party can refer either to an individual or a set of romantically involved individuals. Although there may be different types of loving relationships between some (or all) co-parents within this constellation, there is at least some 'detachment' that is recognised as being created and present by an absence of romantic love between those parties.