The Correlation between Spiritual Health and Maternal-Fetal Attachment Behaviors in Pregnant Women Referring to the Health Centers in Qazvin, Iran

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Midwifery and Reproductive Health, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran;

2 Department of Biostatistics, School of Allied Medical Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran;

3 Department of Psychology, School of Humanities, Imam Hossein University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Background: Spiritual health and maternal-fetal attachment behaviors are considered as beneficial coping strategies used to adapt to pregnancy. The present study was conducted to determine the correlation between spiritual health and maternal-fetal attachment behaviors in pregnant women referring to health centers in Qazvin.
Methods: The present descriptive correlational study was conducted on 200 pregnant women referring to health centers in Qazvin, in 2015. A multi-stage sampling was carried out and data were collected in a self-report manner, using the Persian version of Spiritual Well-Being scale developed by Paloutzian and Ellison, Persian version of Cranley’s maternal-fetal attachment scale, and a demographic and midwifery questionnaire. Data were analyzed in SPSS-20, using Pearson’s correlation coefficient and the multivariate linear regression. P<0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results: The mean scores of attachment and spiritual health were 95.91±8.92 and 104.15±10.59, respectively. A weak positive correlation was observed between attachment behaviors and spiritual health (P<0.001, r=0.40). Regression analysis showed that spiritual health (P<0.001, β=0.40), religious health (P<0.001, β=0.30), and existential health (P<0.001, β=0.43) could predict the maternal-fetal attachment behaviors.
Conclusion: The results showed that a higher spiritual health was associated with an increase in maternal-fetal attachment behaviors. These results suggest the importance of strengthening spirituality during pregnancy as an effective strategy for increasing the attachment behaviors.

Keywords

References

  1. Ghorbani M, Dolatian M, Shams J, Alavi-Majd H. Anxiety, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Social Supports Among Parents of Premature and Full-Term Infants. Iranian Red Crescent Medical Journal. 2014;16:e13461.
  2. BT*Dau ALBT, Callinan LS, Smith MV. An examination of the impact of maternal fetal attachment, postpartum depressive symptoms and parenting stress on maternal sensitivity. Infant Behavior & Development. 2019;54:99-107.
  3. Ustunsoz A, Guvenc G, Akyuz A, Oflaz F. Comparison of maternal and paternal–fetal attachment in Turkish couples. Midwifery. 2010;26:e1-9.
  4. Pillitteri A. Maternal & child health nursing: Care of the childbearing & childrearing family. 6th ed. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2010.
  5. Magee SR, Bublitz MH, Orazine C, et al. The relationship between maternal-fetal attachment and cigarette smoking over pregnancy. Maternal and Child Health Journal. 2014;18:1017–22.
  6. Alhusen JL, Gross D, Hayat MJ, et al. The influence of maternal-fetal attachment and health practices on neonatal outcomes in low-income, urban women. Research in Nursing & Health. 2012;35:112-20.
  7. Ghodrati F, Akbarzadeh M. A review of the importance of maternal-fetal attachment according to the islamic recommendations. Journal of Midwifery & Reproductive Health. 2018;6:1193-200.
  8. Atashi V, Kohan S, Salehi Z, Salehi K. Maternal-fetal emotional relationship during pregnancy, its related factors and outcomes in Iranian pregnant women: a panel study protocol. Reproductive Health. 2018;15:176.
  9. Bennington LK. The relationship among maternal–infant bonding, spirituality, and maternal perception of the childbirth experience. Journal of Obstetric Gynecologic and Neonatal Nursing. 2012;41:S137-S137.
  10. Gau ML. The relationships between prenatal stress, social support, spiritual well-being, and maternal-fetal attachment for pregnant women [thesis]. Maryland (US): University of Maryland; 1996.
  11. Hiebler-Ragger M, Falthansl-Scheinecker J, Birnhuber G, et al. Facets of spirituality diminish the positive relationship between insecure attachment and mood pathology in young adults. PLoS One. 2016;11:e0158069.
  12. Loetz C, Muller J, Frick E, et al. Attachment theory and spirituality: Two threads converging in palliative care? Evidence Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine. 2013;2013.
  13. Rabiepoor S, Sadeghi E, Sayyadi H. Spiritual Health and Physical Activity Among Iranian Pregnant Women. Journal of Religion and Health. 2019;58:506-15.
  14. Haji*Rafiei E, Tork*Zahrani S, Alavi*Majd H, Nayebi*Nia AS. Spiritual health and its related factors in pregnant women presenting to health centers in Qazvin, Iran, in 2015. Journal of Urmia Nursing and Midwifery Faculty. 2018;16:225-33. [In Persian].
  15. Fisher JW. Staff’s and family members’ spiritual well-being in relation to help for residents with dementia. Journal of Nursing Education and Practice. 2012;2:77-85.
  16. Koening HG. Religion, spirituality, and health: the research and clinical implication. International Scholarly Research Network Psychiatry. 2012;2012:288730.
  17. Callister LC, Khalaf I. Spirituality in childbearing women. The Journal of Perinatal Education. 2010;19:16-24.
  18. Khalaf I, Callister LC. Cultural meaning of childbirth Muslim women living in Jordan. Journal of Holistic Nursing. 1997;15:373-88.
  19. Mangolian*Shahrbabaki P, Nouhi E, Kazemi M, Ahmadi F. Spirituality: A panacea for patients coping with heart failure. International Journal of Community Based Nursing and Midwifery. 2017;5:38-48.
  20. Eslami AA, Rabiei L, Khayri F, et al. Sleep quality and spiritual well-being in hemodialysis patients. Iranian Red Crescent Medical Journal. 2014;16:e17155.
  21. Soleimani MA, Pahlevan*Sharif S, Allen KA, et al. Psychometric Properties of the Persian Version of Spiritual Well-Being Scale in Patients with Acute Myocardial Infarction. Journal of Religion and Health. 2017;56:1981-97.
  22. Khoramrody R. The effect of mothers touch on maternal fetal attachment. [thesis]. Tehran: Iran University of Medical Sciences; 2000. [In Persian]
  23. Peplau LA, Perlman D. Loneliness: A Sourcebook of Current Theory, Research and Therapy. New York: John Wiley & Sons; 1982.
  24. Ellison CW. Spiritual Well-Being: Conceptualization and measurement. Journal of Psychology and Theology. 1983;11:330-8.
  25. Cranley MS. Development of a tool for the measurement of maternal attachment during pregnancy. Nursing Research. 1981;30:281-4.
  26. Heidari T, Ziaei S, Ahmadi F, et al. Maternal experiences of their unborn child’s spiritual care: Patterns of Abstinence in Iran. Journal of Holistic Nursing. 2015;33:146-58.
  27. Mehran P, Simbar M, Shams J, et al. History of perinatal loss and maternal-fetal attachment behaviors. Women Birth. 2013;26:185-9.
  28. Abbasi M, Azizi F, Shamsi*Gooshki E, et al. Conceptual definition and operationalization of spiritual health: A methodological study. Medical Ethics Journal. 2012;6:11-44. [In Persian]
  29. Mutmainnah M, Afiyanti Y. The experiences of spirituality during pregnancy and child birth in Indonesian muslim women. Enfermería Clínica. 2019;29:495-99.
  30. Moloney S, Gair S. Empathy and spiritual care in midwifery practice: Contributing to women’s enhanced birth experiences. Women Birth. 2015;28:323-8.
  31. Delavari M, Mirghafourvand M, Mohammad-Alizadeh-Charandabi S. The relationship of maternal-fetal attachment and depression with social support in pregnant women referring to health centers of Tabriz-Iran, 2016. The Journal of Maternal-Fetal & Neonatal Medicine. 2018;31:2450-6.
  32. Zareipour M, Abdolkarimi M, Valizadeh R, et al. Perceived stress and its relationship with spiritual health in patients with diabetes in the city of Urmia, Iran. Bioscience Biotechnology Research Communications. 2016;9:750-5.
  33. Redelinghuys A, Coetzee H, Roos V. First-time mothers’ experiences of meaningfulness during their third trimester of pregnancy: A focus on spirituality. Journal of Psychology in Africa. 2014;24:246-51.

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics