Measurment of women's prenatal attitudes toward maternity and pregnancy and analysis of their predictors

Abstract

background Research shows that the ability of a woman to adapt to motherhood can be influenced by her attitude towards motherhood and the unborn child during pregnancy. The main goal of the current article is to analyse the maternal attitudes shaped during the prenatal period of the child’s development. This goal was associated with fulfilling two research tasks. The first task was to adapt a tool to measure prenatal attitudes towards motherhood and pregnancy to Polish conditions, including some modifications of the tool, and to present the results of that adaptation. The second research task was to investigate selected factors influencing the development of prenatal attitudes. participants and procedure The study was carried out in two stages. The first stage of the research, conducted with 227 pregnant women, was to adapt the PRE-MAMA questionnaire. All of the subjects were primiparous women aged between 18 and 39 years (M = 26.84), inhabitants of southern Poland. 137 pregnant women from the Silesian Voivodeship in Poland were questioned in the second part of the study. These women were divided into two groups (68 women with a normal course of pregnancy and 69 women with high-risk pregnancies). The mean age of the women approached 30 years (M = 29.78). results The results of the first stage of the current research indicate satisfactory psychometric properties of the Kwestionariusz Postaw wobec Macierzyństwa i Ciąży (Polish for: Attitudes towards Motherhood and Pregnancy Questionnaire, abbreviated as PRE-MAMA), composed of 11 statements. Stepwise multiple regression analysis used in the second stage of research revealed that predictors of attitudes towards motherhood and pregnancy include prenatal worries of the pregnant women, planning of the pregnancy and a medical history of miscarriage. conclusions Our research points at two important results. First, the PRE-MAMA questionnaire was assessed positively, and it can be stated that this tool can be used in further scientific research concerned with the issues of functioning of pregnant women and their attitudes towards motherhood and pregnancy. Second, the preliminary results suggest, among other things, the importance of fears/concerns, perception of the pregnancy as planned or unplanned as well as previously experienced miscarriages for the formation of women’s attitudes towards motherhood and pregnancy.