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A systemic review of maternal wellbeing and its relationship with maternal fetal attachment and early postpartum bonding
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: An emerging body of literature suggests there is a relationship between a pregnant woman's psychological wellbeing and the development of maternal-fetal attachment (MFA) and early postpartum bonding. The nature of this relationship is not well understood because of the limited theoretical framework surrounding the construct of MFA and variations in study methods and data collection points. In this systematic review, we synthesize the published literature to determine the nature of the relationship from the antenatal to early postnatal period and to provide recommendations for future research and clinical practice. METHOD: Using the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) approach, four electronic databases were searched for peer-reviewed empirical studies, published in English. Articles were considered for inclusion if data was collected on at least one domain of maternal wellbeing/mental health and MFA during pregnancy or MFA during pregnancy and the mother-infant relationship during the early postpartum period (up to 12 weeks). No date parameters were applied to the search strategy. The review was registered with PROPSERO (registration number: CRD42018096174). RESULTS: 25 studies examining maternal mental health and MFA/postpartum bonding were selected for inclusion in this review. Key findings identified from the review were: a need to validate existing mental health measures or develop new measures specific for use in antenatal populations; inconsistencies in data collection points throughout pregnancy and postpartum; a lack of consensus about the construct of MFA and the way it is assessed; and a continued focus on postpartum outcomes. CONCLUSION: Scientific gaps remain in our understanding of the relationship between maternal mental health and both MFA and postpartum bonding which limit our theoretical understanding of the MFA construct. Recommendations for future research are to employ prospective longitudinal designs that span the full pregnancy and postpartum period, and for consistency in the terminology and methodology used when considering MFA. A re-focus of research attention on the theory behind MFA will allow a richer and more holistic account of the emerging relationship between mother and baby.
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“Three prior narrative reviews (Edwards, 2017; McNamara et al., 2019; Tichelman et al., 2019) reported that maternal depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms were associated with mother-infant bonding problems”
From Associations between maternal psychological distress and mother-infant bonding: a systematic review and meta-analysis (2023) · cites this paper as McNamara et al., 2019
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“A systematic review by McNamara et al. (2019) demonstrated that psychological distress is an important risk factor for poor preand postnatal bonding in mothers.”
From Mindfulness, Self-compassion, and Psychological Wellbeing as Correlates of Paternal Bonding in Pregnancy. (2025) · cites this paper as McNamara et al. (2019)
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“though a separate SA-based study found no significant associations between poor breastfeeding outcomes and mental health [45].”
From Exploring the effects of mental health on bonding and caregiving among pregnant and postpartum persons with likely depression and/or PTSD in South Africa: a qualitative analysis (2026) · cites this paper as [45]
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“, 2017a [53] To investigate the relationships between perinatal bonding failure, depression and social support among mothers.”
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Antenatal Depression and Maternal-Fetal Attachment
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“One explanation for the non-significant results may be the variation in gestational age [85] and the assessment of MFA early in pregnancy before fetal movement could be detected [87].”
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“The authors suggested that perseverative thinking may reduce a mother’s available cognitive resources and contribute to limiting thinking about her unborn baby, thus having a negative effect on the development of MFA [46].”
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“Furthermore, three studies found that depression was not a predictor of MFA [82, 95, 98].”
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“No correlation was found between anxiety and MAAS-intensity in four of those studies [45, 86, 97, 99].”
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“In all six studies investigating partner support and MFA, a good intimate partner relationship was associated with stronger MFA [45, 46, 81, 82, 90, 92].”
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Redshaw, M., & Martin, C. R. (2013) · Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology · doi:10.1080/02646838.2013.830383 · Cited by 55
Factors influencing maternal distress among Dutch women with a healthy pregnancy
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“One explanation for the non-significant results may be the variation in gestational age [85] and the assessment of MFA early in pregnancy before fetal movement could be detected [87].”
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“International research shows that the antenatal period can be associated with increased distress and elevated psychological vulnerability [5], leaving women susceptible to mental health difficulties–that is, symptoms that cause significant distress and impair functioning [6].”
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Flagged first, then by citations
5 of the 132 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.
Research works printed but not linked: 2
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
A global analysis of the determinants of maternal health and transitions in maternal mortality
Souza, J. P., Day, L. T., Rezende-Gomes, A. C., Zhang, J., Mori, R., Baguiya, A., Jayaratne, K., Osoti, A. O., Vogel, J. P., Campbell, O. M. R., et al. (2023) · The Lancet Global Health · doi:10.1016/s2214-109x(23)00468-0 · Cited by 455
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“Three prior narrative reviews (Edwards, 2017; McNamara et al., 2019; Tichelman et al., 2019) reported that maternal depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms were associated with mother-infant bonding problems, however, no metaanalysis of these associations was conducted.”
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“According to a systematic review conducted by McNamara et al. (2019), only two reports examined the relationship between anxiety and maternal–infant bonding [16].”
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Metadata
- Authors
- McNamara, J., Townsend, M. L., & Herbert, J. S.
- Affiliations
- University of Wollongong (AU)
- Corresponding author
- McNamara, Josephine
- Venue
- PLOS ONE
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Published
- 2019-07-25
- Volume
- 14
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- e0220032
- ISSN
- 1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6657859
- OpenAlex
- W2963294809
- Cited by
- 222
- References
- 132
- Citations by year
- 2026: 25 · 2025: 33 · 2024: 37 · 2023: 42 · 2022: 36 · 2021: 29 · 2020: 18 · 2019: 2
- FWCI
- 19.56
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Figshare (acceptedVersion)
- Research Online (University of Wollongong) (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Attachment and Relationship Dynamics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Obstetrics and Gynecology › Maternal and Perinatal Health Interventions
- Keywords
- maternal well-being, maternal mental health, maternal-fetal attachment, postpartum bonding, mother-infant relationship, prenatal period, early postpartum period, construct validity
- MeSH terms
- Maternal Health, Female, Humans, Mother-Child Relations, Pregnancy, Prospective Studies, Pregnant People, Postpartum Period
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