The maternal birth experience & infant attachment : a mixed methods study

The maternal birth experience is a complex event with implications for later maternal and infant well-being. The present study followed 44 first time mothers to parenthood, to understand the relation between multiple aspects of the maternal birth experience, depression over the transition to parenthood and mother-infant attachment. Both objective and subjective aspects of the birth experience were analyzed in the current study; mothers were interviewed about their birth experience around 12 months postpartum. Additionally, a linguistic analysis of nonfluency was performed on the transcripts of mothers’ responses in the birth experience interview. Three research questions explored in this dissertation include: 1) How does change in depression over the transition to parenthood, aspects of mothers’ recalled birth experiences and mother-infant attachment relate to one another? (quantitative), 2) Does a negative maternal birth experience interact with nonfluency in recall to predict mother-infant attachment? (quantitative) and 3) Which underlying themes and typologies in mothers’ recalled birth experiences help explain why some mothers differ from the norm in terms of either their birth experience, depression trajectory, and/or mother-infant attachment security? Do case studies reveal important differences? (qualitative). Results indicate mothers in the current study had typical birth experiences consistent with data on hospital births for middle-class women in the U.S. Maternal depression slightly decreased over the transition to parenthood. Birth risk factors including maternal support, control (marginal) and pain medication consumption were related to maternal depression symptoms. Nonfluency in mothers’ recalled birth experience transcripts was unrelated to birth risk but related to mothers’ postpartum depression. Both labor pain medication consumption and nonfluency were independently related to infants’ disorganized attachment. Nonfluency interacted with birth risk to predict infant attachment security and organization, above and beyond change in maternal depression. Quantitative results are interpreted with results from qualitative, thematic analyses and underscored with case study examples. The findings of this dissertation indicate a possibility that either mothers’ unresolved state or the presentation of postpartum stress may be behind her vulnerability to a high-risk birth and results in her nonfluency surrounding the topic, which proceeds in mother-infant attachment difficulties. Applications and future research directions are discussed.Human Development and Family Science