The correlation between levels of prenatal attachment and styles coping with stress in pregnant women

Abstract

Background Pregnancy is a very important period in the development of attachment. Objective To determine the correlation between prenatal attachment levels of healthy pregnant women and their styles of coping with stress and those of high-risk pregnant women. Method This descriptive study consisted of 76 women in their third-trimester of pregnancy hospitalised at the Obstetrics and Gynaecology service at a hospital and 210 women in their third-trimester of pregnancy who were experiencing a healthy pregnancy process and admitted to the Gynaecology Outpatient Clinic for pregnancy follow-up. The data were collected with the Personal Information Form, the Prenatal Attachment Inventory and the Stress Coping Styles Scale. Results There was a statistically significant difference between the prenatal attachment levels of healthy and high-risk pregnant women. There was a positive correlation between the prenatal attachment levels and the self-confident and optimistic approaches among the styles of coping with stress in the healthy and high-risk pregnant women . Conclusion The attachment levels of the high-risk pregnant women were higher than were those of the healthy pregnant women. As the use of the self-confident and optimistic approach styles in coping with stress increases among healthy and high-risk pregnant women, so do their prenatal attachment levels.