Quality Of Prenatal Care And Maternal Fetal Attachment Among Primagravida Mothers In Occidental Mindoro, Philippines

Abstract

The prenatal period is a proper chance for evaluating maternal-fetal attachment. By determining maternal-fetal attachment during pregnancy, in time intervention and education could be planned for improving these interactions and consequently improve the mother-child attachment before the childbirth. Considering the importance of maternal attachment to the developing baby and various factors that may affect this matter there is still lack of necessary information in this regard in our country. The study determined the relationship between quality of prenatal care and maternal-fetal attachment among primigravida mothers during late pregnancy period. The study conducted a survey using a 46-item Quality of Prenatal Care Questionnaire (QPCQ) and 24-item Maternal-Fetal Attachment Scale among 343 primigravid mothers in different barangay health stations and prenatal care clinics. Pearson correlation was used to determine the correlation between maternal-fetal attachment scores and quality of prenatal scores. Beta coefficient and its corresponding 95% confidence intervals were computed using linear regression. The overall quality of prenatal care and maternal-fetal attachment of the primigravid women in the study setting is high. The quality of prenatal care is correlated significantly with maternal-fetal attachment. It means that the maternal-fetal attachment will be high if the pregnant mother had a high quality of prenatal care. Moreover, the following age, social support and education level were significantly associated with maternal-fetal attachment.