Maternity blues and attachment to children in mothers of full-term normal infants

Abstract

Objective: This study was conducted for evaluating incidence of maternity blues in Japan, in addition to clarifying the relationship between maternity blues and maternal attachment, and the factors involved. Method: A questionnaire survey was conducted on 417 mothers having given birth at the Nagoya Daini Red Cross Hospital. The questionnaire consisted of Zung's self-rating depression scale, and a ‘postpartum maternal attachment’ scale, consisting of subscales on ‘core maternal attachment’ and ‘anxiety regarding children’. The survey was conducted 5.2 days±1.46 postpartum. Results: ZSDS scores over 40 amounted to 66.8% of the responses. Analysis of the two scales revealed significant correlation/inverse correlation between ‘maternity blues’ and ‘anxiety regarding children’/‘core maternal attachment’. Path analysis revealed ‘maternity blues’ to be influencing ‘core maternal attachment’ and ‘anxiety regarding children’. Conclusion: It was found that the incidence of maternity blues may be higher in Japan than was believed previously, and that an intimate association exists between ‘maternity blues’ and ‘postpartum maternal attachment’.