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Cited by 224Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and PostpartumAttachment and Relationship DynamicsInfant Development and Preterm Care

Correlates of prenatal and postnatal mother-to-infant bonding quality: A systematic review

Open access
Tichelman, Elke, Westerneng, Myrte, Witteveen, Anke B., van Baar, Anneloes L., van der Horst, Henriëtte E., de Jonge, Ank, Berger, Marjolein Y., Schellevis, François G. +2 more·2019·PLOS ONE
DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0222998PMC PMC6759162
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Abstract

BACKGROUND: Mother-to-infant bonding is defined as the emotional tie experienced by a mother towards her child, which is considered to be important for the socio-emotional development of the child. Numerous studies on the correlates of both prenatal and postnatal mother-to-infant bonding quality have been published over the last decades. An up-to-date systematic review of these correlates is lacking, however. OBJECTIVE: To systematically review correlates of prenatal and postnatal mother-to-infant bonding quality in the general population, in order to enable targeted interventions. METHODS: MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, and PsychINFO were searched through May 2018. Reference checks were performed. Case-control, cross-sectional or longitudinal cohort studies written in English, German, Swedish, Spanish, Norwegian, French or Dutch defining mother-to-infant bonding quality as stipulated in the protocol (PROSPERO CRD42016040183) were included. Two investigators independently reviewed abstracts, full-text articles and extracted data. Methodological quality was assessed using the National Institute of Health Quality Assessment Tool for Observational Cohort and Cross-sectional studies and was rated accordingly as poor, fair or good. Clinical and methodological heterogeneity were examined. MAIN RESULTS: 131 studies were included. Quality was fair for 20 studies, and poor for 111 studies. Among 123 correlates identified, 3 were consistently associated with mother-to-infant bonding quality: 1) duration of gestation at assessment was positively associated with prenatal bonding quality, 2) depressive symptoms were negatively associated with postnatal mother-to-infant bonding quality, and 3) mother-to-infant bonding quality earlier in pregnancy or postpartum was positively associated with mother-to-infant bonding quality later in time. CONCLUSION: Our review suggests that professionals involved in maternal health care should consider monitoring mother-to-infant bonding already during pregnancy. Future research should evaluate whether interventions aimed at depressive symptoms help to promote mother-to-infant bonding quality. More high-quality research on correlates for which inconsistent results were found is needed.

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  • Three prior narrative reviews reported that maternal depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms were associated with mother-infant bonding problems.

    “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 Tichelman et al., 2019

    The Results > Correlates section (page unavailable) reports that 28 of 29 studies found more depressive symptoms associated with poorer postnatal bonding, but prenatal findings were less conclusive. The Discussion > Interpretation section (page unavailable) says findings for general anxiety and stress were mixed, so the citation does not support presenting all three symptoms as consistently associated with bonding problems. Tichelman et al. is also a systematic review, not a narrative review. (LLM, conf=0.88)

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Research works printed but not linked: 3

  1. [23]Slagt-Tichelman E, Klijnstra S, Oostenbrink M, de Jonge A, Westerneng M, Peters LL. Optimale moeder-kind binding: een systematische review (Optimal mother-to-infant bonding: a systematic review of prenatal interventions). Tijdschr voor Verlos. 2019; 3: 16– 25.
  2. [24]Nunnally JC, Bernstein IH. Psychometric Theory (McGraw-Hill Series in Psychology). Vol. 3 New York: McGraw-Hill; 1994.
  3. [53]Bowlby J. Attachment and loss: Attachment (vol. 1). New York: Basic Books; 1969.

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Authors
Tichelman, E., Westerneng, M., Witteveen, A. B., van Baar, A. L., van der Horst, H. E., de Jonge, A., Berger, M. Y., Schellevis, F. G., Burger, H., & Peters, L. L.
Affiliations
  • University Medical Center Groningen (NL)
  • Amsterdam Public Health (NL)
  • Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research (NL)
Corresponding author
Tichelman, Elke
ORCID
Venue
PLOS ONE
Publisher
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Published
2019-09-24
Volume
14
Issue
9
Pages
e0222998
ISSN
1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0222998
PMC
PMC6759162
OpenAlex
W2975920003
Cited by
224
References
63
Citations by year
2026: 41 · 2025: 36 · 2024: 27 · 2023: 48 · 2022: 29 · 2021: 27 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 1
FWCI
2.94
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Pure Amsterdam UMC (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Amsterdam UMC (VU Amsterdam) - Institutional Repository (publishedVersion, other-oa)
  • University of Groningen research database (University of Groningen / Centre for Information Technology) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • Utrecht University Repository (Utrecht University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • University of Groningen research database (University of Groningen / Centre for Information Technology) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Funders
Universitair Medisch Centrum Groningen
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 › Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health › Infant Development and Preterm Care
Keywords
prenatal bonding, maternal depressive symptoms, gestational age, social-emotional development, pregnancy, postpartum period, maternal care
MeSH terms
Child Development, Female, Humans, Infant, Mother-Child Relations, Mothers, Pregnancy, Prenatal Care, Depression, Postpartum, Postpartum Period

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